Wanna get a sneak peek at a stranger’s life? – Use 20 Day Stranger App.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to swap a life with someone else for one day? Most people with imagination had a thought like that at least once. Here is some good news.

Your dream might come true by using this app, 20 Day Stranger, which allows users to virtually experience a total stranger’s life for 20 days. The catch? You never know whose life you are experiencing throughout the 20 days. The app randomly pairs up 2 users. Then they’ll receive snapshots or Google street view pics, or images of what the other is having for lunch and so on.

Is there any romantic essence?

Well, a regular dating-app can only let you browse people’s profile pictures. You just keep scrolling people’s profiles until you hit the jackpot find someone that meets your criteria. But till that point, you feel like it’s an endless process. Your chances of getting a date is pretty much limited to the impressions you get from people’s profile pics.

20 Day Stranger can help you find something more meaningful. Like the film, ‘Holiday’ – (but minus the expensive flight tickets).

The romance may continue beyond the 20-day-experience, as you will be given an opportunity to send a friendly message to the mysterious stranger. Say, if a guy or girl just experienced your life virtually and enjoyed every single minute, then there might be a good chance of meeting a new friend, or even a life-time partner.

This app is not exclusively designed as a dating app. Just having a peek at somebody else’s life somewhere on the other side of world does sound a bit cool and thrilling. The app was developed by MIT as a ‘‘tiny window onto a wider world”, according to the team (BostInno).

They explained the concept as the following;

‘For 20 days, you and a stranger will experience the world in your own way, together. You’ll never know who it is or exactly where they are, but we hope it will reveal enough about someone to build your imagination of their life … and more broadly, the imagination of strangers everywhere.’

But at the same time this might sound a bit creepy. A stranger will know your favourite café, where you go, where you live and when you go to bed every night. What would happen if the app was misused by some serial killers?

Curiosity wins…

Having said that, probably there is a very little chance of this app being misused since you have the right to keep your name or photos secret (BostoInno). ‘We started by thinking, could we make some piece of software that allows you to be connected to strangers in a way that produced empathy instead of suspicion, contempt, or disdain?’ says the director of MIT Media (see MailOnline).

 

Ok, I still want to know what a typical day in Tahiti is like, and what commuting is like in Bangkok. If the app was used in the right way – as how it is supposed to be – I can imagine a lot of positive cultural exchanges in the future here. Virtual experiences of a stranger’s life in another cultural context could help people overcome prejudices and discrimination based on cultural or racial differences. Ok, maybe I’m going too far.

What do you think?

London Web Agency Appnova – keep following us on Twitter @appnova and “like” us on Facebook for useful news and tasteful digressions about geeky stuff.