“At what point in time did people become so pathetic that they couldn’t just tell somebody that they’re not interested or confront a slightly awkward situation? Why do we need a bot to do that for us?”
– Awesome Inquiry, 2016
I’m sure you have heard of the term ‘Ghosting’, and I’ll eat my hat if you haven’t done it before.
According to Urban dictionary (2016), Ghosting is:
When a person cuts off all communication with their friends or the person they’re dating, with zero warning or notice before hand. You’ll mostly see them avoiding friend’s phone calls, social media, and avoiding them in public.
But have you heard of the application called ‘Ghostbot’? It’s an add-on to the Burner app and according to the company:
The Burner text-messaging bot that helps you ghost away from fleeting relationships — without the emotional baggage.
– Burner, 2019
In a nutshell, the app speaks to your Tinder dates for you, giving them vague replies which ultimately may lead to them giving up on the pursuit altogether. More information is explained in the short video below.
Since when did we need a chatbot to manage our dates for us?! And how is this more ethically inclined than ghosting?!
Today’s technology has really allowed us to (how do I put it lightly?)…. stay in our comfort zones when it comes to awkward and/or difficult conversations. What type of impact could this avoidance of a pretty important life skill have on us long term? What could this mean for our digital generation?
Employers are always talking about how important communication is a soft skill, but when did we become so afraid of direct communication?
“This is just another example of pretty much pure unadulterated laziness how are people that are brought up not confronting reality going to manage when they do have to confront reality in the friggin world”.
– Awesome Inquiry, 2016
If there’s a bot that can reject people for us, what’s coming next?
In my own humble opinion, I think developers could better direct their skills to more important causes, like, you know, educating the world perhaps?
What about human connection? Will we be outsourcing that too? Will our lives just end up the like the movie ‘Her’ where we employ people to write heartfelt greetings to each other?
Somewhere, somehow, there are 2 chatbots out there vaguely replying to each other…what a waste of electricity and server space. *Facepalm*
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Have you been ghosted before? Or maybe you had (what you thought at the time) was a pretty intense connection with someone that turned out to be a chatbot.
I would really love to hear your thoughts on this app in the comment section below!
References
‘Ghostbot: The Creepy Auto Messaging App’ 2016, YouTube, Awesome Inquiry, 23 June 2016, date retrieved 10th August 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad40_xam3Uc>
Burner, 2019, ‘Ghostbot for burner’, Burner, date retrieved 10th August 2019, <https://ghostbot.burnerapp.com>
SunnyDoll, 2016, ‘Facebook image crafting’, Urban Dictionary, date retrieved 10th August 2019, <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facebook%20image%20crafting>
All images featured in this blog post are in the public domain and have been sourced from pixabay.com.