Flirting can be a terrifying art, but now college students can flirt without the daunting fear of rejection.
A new free website geared toward university students, LikeALittle.com, allows students to select their campus and anonymously flirt with one another.
“At Barrett Dining Hall ... I saw you with your short friend in the fluorescent pink/orange shirt,” one student anonymously posted on the ASU campus section of LikeALittle. “This isn’t the first time we’ve locked eyes ... hopefully we’ll see each other again.”
Stanford graduate Evan Reas, the CEO and co-founder of LikeALittle, created the site to give students the opportunity to flirt easily with their surrounding peers, and not miss out on romantic connections.
Reas’ inspiration for the site takes root in his own desire to easily communicate with people, he said.
“It lets people say things without a fear of rejection and make real-life connections they otherwise might not,” Reas said.
LikeALittle shouldn’t be classified as online dating, Reas said. The concept is quickly complimenting and connecting with fellow students.
“It is incredibly fast, simple and anonymous to use,” said Reas. “Online dating has such high expectations and that’s why I think it is often not successful.”
The website launched in October and has since grown, Reas said. Dozens of universities are now participating, including ASU, UA and NAU.
“My full inspiration for starting the ASU website was, more or less, off my own experiences with NAU LikeALittle,” said Elias Pickhart, founder of the ASU section of LikeALittle. “When I transferred to ASU, I noticed they didn’t have one and took a shot at getting one going.”
Pickhart set up the ASU page over winter break, and in just over a month there have been a multitude of anonymous flirtations made by more than 100 Sun Devil users.
“The idea of LikeALittle is really quite impressive once a large body of students notice it,” he said.
Pickhart said he had some “really good times” using the NAU version.
“At NAU it was well-received. I met up with a girl I thought was pretty stunning,” he said. “Fortunately she thought the same for me.”
Success stories are actually quite frequent, Reas said.
“We know of hundreds of couples who have gotten together because of the site already,” he said.
One story is that of a female who was visiting her friend at UC San Diego, and locked eyes with a “cute” male in the cafeteria. It wasn’t long before LikeALittle brought them together.
“I posted on here and in a few hours I got a private message and it was from mystery boy,” the anonymous LikeALittle user posted on the site. “He ended up adding me on Facebook ... We’ve been dating since.”
Other stories of students finding romantic connections while using LikeALittle can be found on the “stories” page of the website.
No success stories of students finding lasting connections at ASU through the website have been published yet.
Pickhart said spreading the word about LikeALittle is in students’ hands. It’s up to them to pass on the key of endless flirting, he added.
“We’re in college. It’s about having fun,” Pickhart said. “LikeALittle is a perfect way to interact with some people you may never have expected to, and I think it’s pretty amazing.”
Reach the reporter at ktenagli@asu.edu
