Have you ever felt like you’ve been hanging around the same kind of people your whole life?
Sure, your friends might have different interests and backgrounds, but in the end you and your friends are all very like-minded in terms of life goals. You want to live until you’re old, eat a lot of good food, have a stable job and maybe care for a couple of pets or kids, whatever floats your boat.
A new app, Rendezwho, randomly assigns you with one complete stranger for life. There are no do-overs, no regrets and surprisingly no forms of written communication allowed.
Being the goal-oriented people they are, app founders Candy Baca and Adil Ansari created Rendezwho with simple yet addictive daily questions that allow you to get to know your mystery person a little better.
Once you register, initially you only need to answer three questions. Seems easy enough to find a best friend forever or, in some unfortunate cases, find your future serial killer.
The three questions could be: Which nefarious politician would I most like to play charades with? What is my comfort food? What type of music do I listen to?
In response to the first question, I wonder if my mystery person knows Andrew Jackson forcibly displaced 46,000 Native Americans or that Ronald Reagan didn’t want children with AIDS to attend school.
I would go with a more obvious immoral character, something topical, like Al Assad or Donald Trump.
For the second question, I would respond with artisanal cheese, obviously.
I always hate having to answer the last question. I appreciate a good lip-sync battle while listening to Top 40, but I also enjoy electronic indie music, which makes me sound like one of those peppy “festival” girls.
To be frank, Electric Daisy Carnival sounds like a bad sequel to “The Great Gatsby.”
After you answer the three Rendezwho questions you wait for what seems like an eternity. When I used the app, I felt like a child waiting for the microwave to magically pop the popcorn.
Once you’re matched, you’re matched. There’s no turning back. In my experience, I was scared. Having a lifelong buddy seems like a pretty tall order.
Once you’re matched with your person you find out only one thing — how far away they are from you.
The distance can be alarming. Something like 1,653 miles really puts things into perspective. I could grasp how utterly unattainable Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” really is.
Apart from the distance, you’re only allowed to know more about your newfound friend based on the exchange of emoji’s, Spotify playlists and gifs. I know, I know. What are we, cavemen? We shouldn’t have to use hieroglyphics and mixtapes in order to meet up with someone.
The key to Rendezwho is the daily question. It’s like taking birth control, but only way more fun. Every morning, you wake up and answer a BuzzFeed-esque question.
This might seem like a huge commitment. That’s because it is. We don’t invest ten precious seconds on real people we know, nevertheless a total stranger. That person’s whereabouts are completely ambiguous, and a real life meet up is totally unattainable.
But maybe that’s the fun of it. Knowing there’s a person out there who wants to meet you just as much as you want to meet them, but you literally don’t know what’s in store.
jlkarl@indiana.edu
@jkarl26
