Orkut, testimonials and bonding

Now someone might ask, or rather will ask, what does this title stand for? What am I trying to indicate. Ok, the first two words seem to be related. People write testimonials for their friends on orkut. They write good things about their friend, never anything bad or anything that might expose the grey shades of his/her character.

So, what is the relation between writing testimonials and bonding? If you carefully look at testimonials that are written seriously, you will find that people articulately mention their friend's characteristics, how he/she been progressing in life and how he/she has been helpful in shaping their life. This is an indication of the bond the two friends share. One might argue of the possibility of the person being a good, skillful writer and not a good friend. While this possibility cannot be ruled out, the inherent assumption here is that the testimonial is a sincere reflection of the friend's characteristics, and not an attempt to glorify those weakly observable traits. A nicely written testimonial, in high probability, indicates that the two persons are very good friends. It indicates the depth of friendship. I mean, only a true friend would present a fair picture of his/her friend's traits. Good friends are known to be very observant about their friends' activities and mannerisms. The only other people who are constantly observant about others are detectives and people from the intelligentsia.

This, however, does not mean that people who do not write a good testimonial are not good friends. It is quite possible that a person is not able to express his/her views in writing. The person may not be a good writer. He/she may know a person better than everybody else, but may not be able to put it down in words. So, all those who feel they are not good testimonial writers, do not get disappointed. You may be the best friend. After all, orkut is not to show who is the best friend, it is just to make friends.