This is an iPhone app from the Playful Systems at MIT Media Labs.
And the app is call, not surprisingly, 20 Day Stranger.
It does what its name says – it connects you to a strange for 20 days. You share your every day life and then, at the end, each person can send the watching stranger one message. You will never learn who the other person is.
So, what’s the point of this?
If you think about, technology and social media hasn’t really opened our eyes beyond our immediate social network. A Facebook newsfeed is simply a filtered view of your existing world.
20 Day Stranger aims to change that. The app will put you in connect with someone as far away from your location as possible, someone living a very different life to you.
The app won’t provide specific details of your location. It will provide a news feed that is both specific and vague at the same time. That is, it won’t provide your exact location, rather a Google map that shows the general location of where you are in the world.
It’s designed to appeal to the curious. It’s current in a beta test at MIT but is heading to the App Store soon.
So, the question remains. Would you be willing to share your life with a strange for 20 days to expand your horizons, and theirs, and be part of this online social experiment?
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20 Day Stranger from Playful Systems on Vimeo.
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