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'Situationist' App Asks Strangers To Touch You

by Leila Brillson on March 8, 2011 at 02:10 PM

Call me a jaded, anti-social New Yorker, but I spend an awful lot of my time avoiding awkward situations with complete strangers. So the 'Situationist' app for iPhone -- which allows you to upload a picture, geo-tag yourself and choose things that are "acceptable" for a stranger to do to you -- makes me a bit nervous.

Sure, it might be a nice icebreaker to have an anonymous person come up to me and shake my hand as if I just saved her life, but that person also knows where I am, what I look like and what type of fancy phone I'm carrying. She could see me pinpointed on a map and what "situation" I may be looking for, from "Help me rouse everyone around us into revolutionary fervour and storm the nearest TV station" to "Tell me I'm beautiful."

The Situationist



The notion, says app developer Benrik.co.uk, is to "protest against the demonisation of strangers encouraged by the media." Honorable enough, but in the era of bedbugs, social network stalking and Foursquare robberies, why exactly do I want some stranger knowing exactly where I am, getting ready to give me a big ole hug?

Tags: apps, crazy apps, CrazyApps, ios, iphone, personal space, PersonalSpace, situationist, social networking, SocialNetworking, top

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