The social network for loners

On the Today programme on Radio 4, pundits were mulling over the $50bn valuation of Facebook. The difficulties of setting up a competing social network were summarised thus: no-one wants to be a member of a network which their friends aren’t a member of. As the man on the programme said, “No-one wants to be a loner”.

Apart from the fact that they do.

Take the heterogeneous world of programmers for example. “Managing senior programmers is like herding cats” as Dave Platt not-so-famously said, whilst simultaneously finding time for a glittering career in English football.

There is a vast and untapped market out there for oldies, loners, oddballs and weirdos who just don’t do social networking. So I propose a new venture, the social network for loners, which comes under the grandeous title of FaceLess. Each user is limited to just 6 real friends, they’re not allowed to log on for more than 30 minutes a week, and no poking is allowed. Period.