Flirting can be hard.

But for the dating dilettantes at Augustana, a new social media network is stepping in to ease the process.

Likealittle.com opened an Augustana College site on Dec. 14, 2010. Since then, the posts have multiplied into the hundreds that can be found today.

Released on Oct. 25, 2010, LikeALittle is described as a "flirting facilitator"  meant to ease the awkwardness of collegiate romance.

The concept that creator Evan Reas and co-founders Prasanna Sankaranarayanan and Shubham Mittal developed combined old-school missed connections, with the modern ease of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Students fill in descriptors about the individual they're lusting after: "I'm looking at a ‘girl/guy' with ‘red/brown/blonde' hair at ‘insert location here'." After identifying the crush, the author can pen a flirt to the object of their desire.

Because the site works in real time, the post appears immediately, with options for the author to anonymously e-mail the link to the intended recipient.

Fruit names are randomly assigned to anyone who responds to a post to maintain a level of secrecy, although some posts do little to hide the identity of the involved parties.

For instances of unintentional identification or blatant provocation, LikeALittle only requires an Augustana e-mail to remove a post.

Since the October release, LikeALittle has spread to more than 400 college campuses.

"We did expect it to go well, because buzz words like ‘flirting' and ‘gossip' on a college campus are just like honey," Reas said in a November interview with The Stanford Review.

Sophomore Cole Jenkins contacted Reas soon after the site opened to the public to open an Augustana site.

Jenkins, together with freshmen Joseph Piche, Paul Yak and Seth Vogelsang, coordinated to become LikeALittle Augustana's founding members.

"We saw how the website had worked at other campuses and thought that having a LikeALittle here would be a fun distraction," Piche said. "It has proven to be precisely that – the amount of traffic the website garnered after the initial week was astounding."

Piche's fellow founding member Vogelsang committed to the site because he felt it filled a need Augustana was lacking.

"Just like Facebook, it is a growing way to interact with other people," Vogelsang said. "Whether it is in the form of flirting or joking around with friends, it is another way to say what you want to say."

A quick scan of the posts reveal that students are using the site as both a legitimate means for connection and a method of joking with their friends.

Junior Dillon DeBoer uses the site for both purposes, but sees a positive element to even the most facetious flirts.

"I've often posted about someone who I truly wanted to flirt with; yet, it is also fun because my friends all know who it is and what I'm talking about," he said.

"Honestly, I think LikeALittle is a good thing for college students," DeBoer said. "I cannot say how many countless nights I stayed up late with friends trying to find out who was being talked about in each flirt – it brought us closer as we all talked about it."

Even though the site gives students an alternative to human interaction, Piche believes it will actually create community in more situations like DeBoer's.

"It is an entirely different form of human interaction," Piche said. "It can be used as a medium to meet new people, create some controversy or just have fun, but I think it ends up drawing students into more human socialization."

For now, LikeALittle will continue to serve the fearful flirters at Augustana with a venue to express their emotions. And students who don't participate can also reap the benefits.

"I just like to read others' comments because they add humor to my mundane study life," senior Heidi Rittenhouse said.