Thursday, January 24, 2013

Safe Sex?

This arguably could evolve into the worst thing to come out of Ann Arbor since Ann Coulter. Gizmodo and TechCrunch have been covering Playbook, an app created by a University of Michigan student.
photo from tech crunch
While the creator of the app has stated that it is supposed to be gender neutral, the language of the app "Keep track of your hookups and share them with your bros" might suggest to women to never hook up with someone who has an iPhone or $.99. The twitter feed about this is pretty interesting, David Fontenot (the creator and notorious Don Juan virgin) is tweeting to Hugh Hefner about the app, labeling it a private social network. It really just reminds me more of r/creepshots. Obviously this guy is smart, maybe just not socially so. I hope that he puts future efforts into something intelligent/not sexist/not terrifying.  Just kidding, I am terrified of men like this, whose new predation territory has extended to the internet. This is not/will never be a good idea and I recommend that people continue just talking about their hookups rather than taking the time to find a picture on the internet and rate the encounter.

6 comments:

  1. We took out ratings of the encounters because we thought it would objectify women similarly to how http://onlulu.com objectifies men.

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    1. Though not an app I would personally download, www.onlulu.com is not nearly as degrading as playbook. Straight from their site it says "..helping other girls discover the guys they believe are keepers. To be clear, Lulu isn't a place to trash-talk..".

      I would say that David Fontenot needs to be slapped but I think he did that pretty well to himself. He just ruled out any girl with any self-respect or sense out of his future. The jokes kind of on him, haha

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    2. I have been trying to figure out how to approach this comment because obviously you feel like there is a double standard. I don't know you, I don't know your experiences but I can tell you that so much of me just doesn't care. Lulu, which I don't agree with, can't outdo institutionalized misogyny with an app of misandry. Who cares about the other apps if all of the ideas are terrible?
      Your website, while not having formal ratings, is still legitimizing rating your experiences through comments. Not having formal ratings does not make it a good idea. It is a tool that is designed to be misused, similar to how Juicy Campus' notoriety came from users that were able to post unchecked, outright lies. These sites/apps are predatory. Your app is predatory. I believe if left unchecked this could lead to someone getting preyed on by another user who see them as some picture/comments on your app instead of a human being.

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  2. I once had the misfortune of hearing this guy sing a Maroon 5 song at an open mic (reading the lyrics off his iPhone, of course). Pretty sure he didn't "hit a homerun" that night.

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    1. We've all been witness to an adam levine cover or two.

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  3. Kids nowadays. I'll be terribly shock if there's a feature about how to use and where to buy generic viagra.

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