'Love Struck", The London Paper, London UK, But what about "Friend struck", or "Community Struck"?...

A great deal of people I talked to thought it inappropriate to walk up to someone on the street or a train and start a conversation. Some societies have this unspoken rule about conversing with people whilst commuting in these situations. 

 

One of my classmates told me that in her experience some people actually find that talking to them would be considered rude as they are trying to get to their destination and this is time they are trying to get a minute of rest in their busy day and just don't want to be bothered.

 

Ok, so there are people that don't want to be bothered. What about the single people, the lonely people, the people looking for friendships and to connect with their community? 

 I then started traveling about the London trains and on the streets and found that if I needed help, such as asking for directions or wanting to read a paper that might be placed next to a person, it was fine to speak to someone and there is no problem. People, overall, are willing to help in a small situation like this, but do keep to themselves in general. 

 I have also been in a situation that I caught eyes with someone, we smiled at each other and then left separate ways because neither of us was willing to go to that next step. I have a great fear that I should not just walk up to people and start talking as I have been told it is not appropriate. 

 A woman started talking to me in line at the D&AD a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased that she started the conversation. She was very kind and I thought she would be a nice person to get to know better. I am new to the city and would love to make a new friend. I had to leave suddenly and never got her name let alone her email or phone number. I left the line wondering "what if?" 

 

Whilst traveling about the city I found The  London Paper has a section for singles and people looking for love. There is an article is called, 'Lovestruck'. Basically what you do is if you fancy someone on your travels though out the day traveling on the train and you are afraid to speak to them, or whatever the reason, in person you can text a message to this site, pay a fee of 50p plus standard network extras, the editor looks over the message and finds it appropriate for printing and then your message will be printed in this section in the hopes that the person you are messaging might actually read the next issue. 

This seems to me a bit of a gamble when you could simply get rid of the middleman and just talk to the person...yes, but how?

I read several of the messages from this article and found that people are connecting in a non-verbal way. Most of the article either mention a smile or shared a quick chat, but for some reason or other are stopping before they can make a connection. Are they too shy, nervous about meeting new people, afraid of rejection? They are willing to text in to this service and spend money in hopes that they might find that person again to create a connection, be it love or friendship. 

Ok, so this is a dating service and I have been talking mostly about love and dating situations, but I was wondering why they don't have a friendship network services. I want to design a way in which people can connect in the actual situation and not have to wait and wonder “What if?”