The New York Times > New York Region > Romance Beckons (in Case You Missed It) is a quirky little story about serendipity of love. Except this one involves craigslist and it's "missed connections" section. At the outset, I am tempted to discount this story, just like so many others, as nothing out of the ordinary. Well, it is out of the ordinary, but not unlike so many other similar instances of meetings in the airport, because the plane was delayed, in a bar, calling a number by mistake. People meet in a variety of different ways all the time. Sometimes these chance meetings turn into something more. Most of the time, they do not turn into anything more than a moment and a stranger that walks by. Statistically speaking the chance of something happening is low and is unlikely to be higher simply because you post in the craigslist "missed connections" section. Or is it?
Throughout my research and after actually talking to Craig Newmark on the phone, I realized that there is something to Craigslist. It is a community where people feel there are others like them. It is that place that succeeded in creating some serious social capital in a digital space and policy makers should be really taking a close look (of course they won't but that's another story). The point about craigslist is that people actually trust one another there, or at least are more likely to trust one another. They are also more likely to feel a minor sense of camaraderie simply because they are "in the know" about this "wonderous" place. After all, in SF, using craigslist is a sign of cool. So maybe, just maybe, the missed connections on craigslist actually ups the potential of a chance meeting. Not even the meeting itself, but, if the meeting were to occur, the possibility of it working out. Because there is something to it - a cohort of people, tied together by the same bizzarre interest in missed connections... the latent romantics are hiding on craigslist!
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