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posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday January 27 2015, @09:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the all-I-got-was-this-stupid-T-shirt dept.

Caitlin Dewey writes in the Washington Post that she's been using a new service called "Invisible Boyfriend" and that she's fallen in love with it. When you sign up for the service, you design a boyfriend (or girlfriend) to your specifications. "You pick his name, his age, his interests and personality traits. You tell the app if you prefer blonds or brunettes, tall guys or short, guys who like theater or guys who watch sports. Then you swipe your credit card — $25 per month, cha-ching! — and the imaginary man of your dreams starts texting you." Invisible boyfriend is actually boyfriends, plural: The service’s texting operation is powered by CrowdSource, a St. Louis-based tech company that manages 200,000 remote, microtask-focused workers. "When I send a text to the Ryan number saved in my phone, the message routes through Invisible Boyfriend, where it’s anonymized and assigned to some Amazon Turk or Fivrr freelancer. He (or she) gets a couple of cents to respond. He never sees my name or number, and he can’t really have anything like an actual conversation with me." Dewey says that the point of Invisible Boyfriend is to deceive the user’s meddling friends and relatives. "I was newly divorced and got tired of everyone asking if I was dating or seeing someone," says co-founder Matthew Homann. "There seems to be this romance culture in our country where people are looked down upon if they aren't in a relationship."

Evidence suggests that people can be conned into loving just about anything. There is no shortage of stories about couples carrying on “relationships” exclusively via Second Life , the game critic Kate Gray recently published an ode to “Dorian,” a character she fell in love with in a video game, and one anthropologist argues that our relationships are increasingly so mediated by tech that they’ve become indistinguishable from Tamagotchis. “The Internet is a disinhibiting medium, where people’s emotional guard is down,” says Mark Griffiths. “It’s the same phenomenon as the stranger on the train, where you find yourself telling your life story to someone you don’t know.” It’s not exactly the stuff of fairytales, concludes Dewey. "But given enough time and texts—a full 100 are included in my monthly package—I’m pretty sure I could fall for him. I mean, er … them."

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @02:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @02:25AM (#138713)

    unwillingness to compromise for others

    You're not compromising with your badgering parent by using this service, you're just deceiving them. And by not putting a stop to it early, you just set yourself up for more problems. What happens when they demand to meet this fictional person and you can't ever produce them? More badgering. Part of growing up is having your relationship with your parents mature into one between adults who show each other respect. Your over-involved parent isn't showing you respect by constantly haranguing you over your relationship status, and you're not showing respect by lying about it.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by sigma on Wednesday January 28 2015, @05:38AM

    by sigma (1225) on Wednesday January 28 2015, @05:38AM (#138761)

    What happens when they demand to meet this fictional person and you can't ever produce them?

    Hollywood romcom movie starring Matthew McConaughey in 3.2.1...

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @05:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 28 2015, @05:59AM (#138764)

    >> unwillingness to compromise for others
    >
    > You're not compromising with your badgering parent by using this service,

    Compromising for is not the same as compromising with.

    > What happens when they demand to meet this fictional person and you can't ever produce them?

    You break up. Please don't be that guy who thinks they can disprove a concept by assuming everyone is really stupid.

    > Your over-involved parent isn't showing you respect by constantly haranguing you over your relationship status, and you're not showing respect by lying about it.

    Fantastic. And back in the real world you live with hand you are dealt.

    • (Score: 1) by Mr. Slippery on Wednesday January 28 2015, @06:24PM

      by Mr. Slippery (2812) on Wednesday January 28 2015, @06:24PM (#138968) Homepage

      And back in the real world you live with hand you are dealt.

      Ah, I think I see the problem here, AC. You -- and a lot of other people, apparently -- don't realize that the game is draw poker. You get to throw cards back. (You also get to bluff, but let's start with the basics.)

      Paying for a fake boyfriend app rather than exercising the difficult but vital skill of drawing and enforcing relationship boundaries is not a path conducive to long-term mental health.