If there is a market for it, there is always an enterprising person that comes up with a new product to pitch. Single people have been lamenting for years about parents, extended family, co-workers, neighbors and even friends bugging them because they are not in a relationship. Questions like “Will you ever get serious?” “How come you don’t have a boyfriend/girlfriend?” “Do you ever plan to settle down?” and the classic comment, “You don’t have all the time in the world, you know.”
Given how many single adults there are in the world, there is definitely a strong market for the “Invisible Boyfriend,” an app that creates a significant other who calls you, sends you texts, leaves you messages, and well, gives the appearance that you are in a relationship. It costs about $25 for a basic package of messages.
Users can pick the qualities they want in their “Invisible Boyfriend,” from looks to interests to personality type. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that in real life? Sounds a bit like the movie Her, where the main character falls in love with his computer technology system. It’s definitely possible that this could happen with this app, if someone is lonely enough and lets their imagination go wild.
The people behind the messages are anonymous workers who have a degree, pass a writing test, and are apparently good at faking affection and love. So good in fact that some users seem to be forgetting that they are not who their messages portray them as being. Some users confess that they are so happy with the way the service makes them feel that they plan to continue past the point that it was designed for—which was to convince others that they had a significant other and put a stop to annoying questions,, comments and insinuations.
I can imagine it—hundreds (thousands) of users falling in love with a virtual presence who says what they long to hear and makes them feel special and as though anything is possible, relationship-wise. Sounds a bit like online dating, when people fall for someone they have not yet met after they create an image in their minds of this perfect person based on what they have written and/or shared about themselves. Unfortunately, it can all be make-believe as well—which many online daters have found out when they attempted to set up that first in-person meeting or learned another way that this person was not who they believed them to be.
If you need to fake a relationship, this is the app for you. However, if you have a history of being a “fool for love,” beware. You could fall madly in love with someone who doesn’t exist and in the process miss out on that Mr. /MS Wonderful who could be right in front of you.