How Can Technology Make Breaking Up Impersonal?

How Can Technology Make Breaking Up Impersonal?

Guest Post

Technology gives us the chance to avoid doing those things that we don’t want to do. You can go online and order Chinese food and have it delivered to your home. You can do your grocery shopping and even have it delivered through the grocery store’s website. Now, you can even break up with someone online.

There are apps that can give you on-demand prompts that will help you create the perfect breakup text message (because no one actually wants to call someone or, Heaven forbid, see them in person to deliver the news). There’re some websites that will give you a play-by-play of how to break someone’s heart. If that is still too confrontational for you, you can pay a fee and have the app, Binder, do it for you.

What is Binder?

When 6,000 people downloaded the Binder app on the first day, the creators, Jordan Laird and Ian Greenhill were shocked. The pair initially created the app as a joke, calling it the opposite of Tinder. The premise is that if swiping right can (potentially) get you into a relationship, it should also help you get out of one.

The app’s slogan even reads, “It’s time they got the message.”

According to Pew Research Center, one in five adults from ages 25 to 34 have used an online dating tool, be it a dating app or a local singles chat room, to find a new partner. Just as many have definitely employed some form of technology to get out of a relationship.

Break-up Tech

A phone call used to be considered one of the most impersonal ways you could break up with someone. However, today, it doesn’t matter who you ask, people will say that if you break up with someone through a text message, you’re pretty heartless and it isn’t an acceptable means to do the deed. Yet, it continues to remain one of the most common ways teenagers end their relationships.

In 2015, two brothers took breaking up to another level and designed a business that cashes in on someone’s heartache. The business, The Breakup Shop, gives you the chance to wipe your hands clean from your partner, in every sense of the word!

The Breakup Shop

Sending a text message or swiping right to break up with someone is a cold hearted thing to do, but at least you are the one to do it. With The Breakup Shop, users pay the business to do the deed for you. The business has several ways that you can have the news delivered to your soon-to-be ex, and it can all be done through their website.

Some of the choices include a break-up email or a text message for $10, a business-like typed letter for $20, or an old-fashioned call on the phone for $29. If you have to break up with someone that you still care for (or you’re racked with guilt and need to smooth things over because of the kids), you can get a breakup gift pack for $80, which will include:

  • A 300g box of Chips Ahoy! Rainbow Cookies
  • A pair 18oz wine glasses
  • $30 Gift Card for Netflix
  • A choice between “The Notebook” Blu-ray or “Call of Duty: Ghosts” video game
  • Handcrafted sympathy letter for the recently single
  • Comforting gift box

How’s that for impersonal?

Social Media’s Role

So, not only do you have websites and apps dedicated to helping people get out of unhappy relationships without actually getting their hands dirty, Facebook joined the group in November 2014 when they introduced the ‘take a break’ function. This particular feature lets you get over your relationship as painlessly as you can. You can remain friends with your ex, but it will limit how much of your ex you see.

This feature will pop up when you change your relationship status on the site and ask if you want to use the take a broken feature.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Breaking up with someone isn’t ever any fun, especially if you’ve been with them for a long time and you still care about them. However, relationships run their course, and there is no reason to continue dating if the love isn’t there.

Technology can be used to help bring us together, so it makes sense it can help us move apart. Is this a good thing? Probably not for the person who is being broken up with, as it often comes unexpectedly and you can’t even get the satisfaction of yelling or screaming at the ex. However, for the one doing the breaking up, technology can be a godsend — especially if you want to avoid getting yelled at; at least for the time being.

The content of the post is sponsored.