During the last exam period, Dutch students found a fun way to break up the long study hours in the library with the Facebook page for Gespot: UB TUD. The page allows people to connect with someone they find attractive, but are too shy or nervous to approach in person.
Now the International students can get in on the fun as well. There is a new English-speaking version.
The concept of the site is simple. People can submit a message with a description of the person and a suggested meeting time and place in case they are interested. The message gets posted on the page anonymously where hopefully the dream date will see it.
With over 4200 “likes”, Gespot has quite a following amongst the Dutch students. The works more or less the same, with the only difference being the option to submit a truly anonymous message through their website.
Evy Otto and Christine van Tuyll, students in Industrial Design and NanoBiology respectively, find the page to be very entertaining, but were highly doubtful that anyone used it to make a real love connection. Otto explained, “People did it to make fun of each other. It is very funny if you are bored with studying.”
Masters students Rehana Sukhrie and Rashnie Chhatta were not familiar with the page despite being Facebook users. They both thought that it could be a good tool for new international students. “It is good for beginners who don’t know the city,” said Sukhrie, “or when you are lonely and young.” Chhatta thought it could be an interesting way for people to get to know each other.
Surush and Sadegh (who declined to give their last names), Aerospace students from Iran, were much more skeptical of its value. Surush said he would never use it to meet a woman. Sadegh gave it a bit more thought but still declined stating, “The girl I would want to go for, I wouldn’t want to be in that circle. People on there might be more of the shyer type. I want a more confident type.”
Only time will tell whether Spotted will gain the following of Gespot. Despite expressing a disinterest in using the service, Sadegh and Surush could quickly think of some classmates that would be a better fit. Sadegh laughed saying, “I see how it is useful in an engineering school where people have social difficulties and are more introverted.”
You can check to see if you’ve been spotted on the Dutch Facebook page Gespot and the English website Spotted University.
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