In a world where apps on your smartphone can eradicate any form of human interaction in order to avoid even the slightest bit of social anxiety, there is now a service that breaks up with your partner for you.
It’s called the Breakup Shop.
For the low price of $10, an employee of the Breakup Shop will send a text or email to your significant other assuring them your relationship is now over, according to the Atlantic.
If you feel as though a text message or email is too impersonal, a letter is an option for an upcharge of $10 to bring the cost to $20.
There are many more options, including various personalization options and phone calls, all for an extra charge.
I know breakups are painful, awkward and no one under any circumstances wants to break up face to face, but seriously? We really need to pay strangers to break up with our partners for us?
I am the first one to admit I am guilty of the cowardly text-message breakup due to the same anxiety and fear of my partner’s reaction.
So I get it.
This service clashes one of the worst human interactions with all your emotions by almost completely removing you from the situation.
The service even directs the person being broken up with to the other end of the Breakup Shop, which offers a Blu-Ray of ‘The Notebook” ($25), a set of two 18-oz. wine glasses ($15) and a box of Chips Ahoy! Rainbow Cookies ($5)” to help ease the transition back to singledom.
But is the Breakup Shop actually helping anyone?
The Atlantic claims one of the founders of the Breakup Shop, MacKenzie, got the idea for the service when a girl whom he was seeing casually just completely broke off communication when she was done seeing him instead of telling him things between them were over.
Sure, knowing there is a concrete end to a relationship of any kind is nice, but do we really want to hire strangers to end a relationship for us when it is much better, albeit harder, to do it ourselves?
I know I keep asking this question, but it’s important to emphasize the stranger element.
It seems like the times are moving toward an increased state of human isolation, where we can even skip talking to a fast food worker when ordering our Chipotle or Taco Bell by ordering online.
With apps and online services making human interaction less necessary, less important and easier, will the need for relationships become less important or necessary?
The online ordering trend for fast food restaurants makes more sense than the Breakup Shop, where you can skip long lines and expedite the process of ordering when you have a time limit.
The Breakup Shop isn’t providing us with a service so much as it is providing us with an excuse to be less connected to each other.
Please learn from my mistake.
Texting or emailing your partner to end a relationship isn’t fair, especially when you hire a stranger to do it for you.
rcm2@indiana.edu
@RachelCMiller1
