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 It's widely known that Brazilians are the largest community in Orkut, Google's invitation-only social network. In fact, the number of Brazilian Orkut members is even larger than recorded, as many choose to register as if he or she was from a small country, like the British Virgin Islands, Nauru or so.
But why does this happen? Is this because Brazilians are naturally warmer and friendlier than other people? Do Brazilians really have more friends than anyone else?
Sadly, it seems that this is not the case. Take, for instance, how people join Orkut: in America, invitations to join are even auctioned off on eBay.
In Brazil, someone who tried this as a source of income would probably starve to death, as I know people who have simply posted on a newsgroup or mailing list something like "Whoever wants to join Orkut, just e-mail me." I myself joined Orkut through one such invitation. And I didn't even know the guy!
I believe that some people do that because of some kind of "most toys syndrome," that is, a desire to be able to boast that he or she has a great number of Orkut friends.
On the other hand, other people accept friend requests simply because they are asked (even by strangers). Which takes us to the next point: at least for Brazilians, is an Orkut friend a friend?
Once again, the sad answer seems to be no. For instance, I joined some cat lovers groups. A couple of days later, I was added to the friends list of a cat! And no, this was not a person using a cat as an alter ego, but rather someone's pet! If its owners invited me to their friends list, I would understand. But why should I be friends with only their cat?
Worse yet, I checked the cat's friends, and they were almost all pets too (including many dogs, by the way). There were also many fake celebrities and even completely fictional soap opera characters who are Orkut members and have many friends.
OK, I suppose that this may happen regardless of country, as a kind of joke, but the fact is that, even browsing several communities in English, I never found any pet, fake celebrity or character that wasn't registered by a Brazilian (and a profile written in Portuguese is a clear indication).
On the other hand, even disregarding "unreal" Orkut friends, becoming friends with real people you don't actually know is very easy on Orkut, at least for Brazilians.
I decided to check this for real, randomly adding to my friends list people who I found on the friend finder page, communities I'm not a member of, and so on. A considerable percentage of those accepted me as a friend, even if they had absolutely no idea about who I am or how I found them!
To stir things up, I decided to join, for a while, some communities that might suggest I am someone with strange tastes and views. And this had almost no effect on complete strangers accepting me as a friend.
So what does this mean? That for many, perhaps most, Brazilians, an 'Orkut friend' is not what he or she would call a friend in the real world.
I don't know to what extent this is also true for members from other countries, but it surely helps inflate the number of Brazilian Orkut members.
So, if you take your Orkut friends list seriously, you should think twice before accepting a stranger as a friend, as he or she may not be.
Alvaro Antunes, 39-year-old Computer Science major, presently working as an English to Portuguese translator, living in Curitiba, Brazil. He can be contacted at alvarotrans@yahoo.com.br.
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