Amardo Rodriguez takes an interest in community and the forces that cause social isolation. He’s seen how social media can fragment personal relationships, particularly on college campuses.

“The psychological, relational, biological and political effects of social isolation are profound,” he said. “Even though most of us are increasingly tweeting, texting and Facebooking, all of this supposedly communication activity is doing absolutely nothing to lessen our social isolation.”

To encourage formation of personal relationships through Internet interaction, Rodriguez developed Tirper, a platform that helps find people near users who have the same interests. Matches can develop a friendship, according to the platform’s website.

Rodriguez, a professor in Syracuse University’s communication and rhetorical studies department and creator of Tirper, said the website is functional, but getting users to subscribe is important.

“It’s up and running but the challenge that we’re facing now is trying to get users on it,” Rodriguez said. “If you look at social media websites their success is ultimately driven by users.”

Rodriguez said he came up with the idea about seven years ago and encouraged others to develop it.

He first developed Tirper after he noticed the increasing number of college students replacing personal connections for social media relationships, he said.

“Technology is not allowing students to build the relationships they need,” he said. “Sadly, this phenomenon has really tormented the modern world. Especially when you look on college campuses — it is without a doubt the most profound and most pressing problem.”

The social media platform focuses on building real world relationships, not just online acquaintanceship, he said.

“It is saving you from doing the hard work and building a relationship,” he said. “So what we try to do with Tirper is kind of lubricate that process.”

Upon subscription to the website, users fill out their gender, age, city, state and profession and select their interests from an extensive list of possibilities.

After filling out their basic information and interests, users are given the option of selecting whether the interest is something they want to teach, learn or play. Tirper also lets users select a radius, which allows them to specify their meeting location, Rodriguez said. Once the site matches users with similar interests, they can email matches, Rodriguez said.

Richard Murphy, a senior television, radio and film major, said the website is like a dating website, but for friends.

He selected lacrosse, entertainment and arts, movies and concerts as his interests to get matched with potential friends in the area, but no results were found.

Tirper will add new functionality in the coming months, Rodriguez said.

He hopes Tirper will become the primary platform for meeting people who share users’ interests and passions and forming valuable relationships with those people.

“We genuinely believe that Tirper performs a vital function and that this function will remain valuable,” Rodriguez said. “It is just a matter now of introducing people to the platform.”

Published on April 28, 2014 at 12:45 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306