Need a Friend? Rent One Online 134
crimeandpunishment writes "Housewives, college students, and others are working for a website that charges users an hourly rate for their companionship. No, it's not an escort service — at least it's not one 'with benefits.' It's a site called rentafriend.com, that's trying to carve out a niche in the 'everything's available online' business world. The seven-month-old site, patterned after hugely successful sites in Asia, has nearly 2,000 members who pay either a monthly or yearly fee to check out the pictures and profiles of more than 160,000 potential pals." I thought Craigslist had already cornered the market on renting a friend for an hour or two.
Counselling (Score:5, Informative)
This service isn't anything to do with being "friends". It's essentially a counselling service where anyone can volunteer to be a paid listener, and people who need someone to either talk to or simply to be there so they can overcome their social issues of going somewhere alone can pay them.
I actually think it's a good idea *if* the people on both sides of the transaction are being honest about what they want out of it.
Re:People laugh at stuff like this (Score:3, Informative)
Find something you ARE into and goto the meetups. Atheist? Tons of atheist meetups on there. Star Trek fan? They have monthly viewing parties in my area. Do you like to cook/eat? They have a million dinner clubs... Seriously there is something for everyone.
Re:Ewww. (Score:3, Informative)
This sounds weird, but it's not that surprising - the pinnacle of the service economy is selling specialized conversation, isn't it? :-)
What I'm really curious is what sort of policies and worker-support practices will emerge in this industry. Without something, it's going to get messy, and quickly.
A therapist who is just listening to you vent is providing a bare minimum sort of service; the real goods happen when they start to challenge you (however subtly) to be more aware of the patterns you're enacting over and over again. Equally importantly are the boundaries that are set - therapists (AAMFT [wikipedia.org] therapists, at any rate) are required to get regular supervision, a sort of meta-therapy.. which is intended as a safeguard in case the therapist gets triggered by the client in some way (e.g. idealizing them, becoming overly invested in their 'progress', irritated by the way the client reminds them of themselves ten years ago or their alcoholic aunt, etc.)
Painful as it is, one of the ways friends help one another is by not putting up with certain behavior - he talks shit all the time, he's always stoned, or whatever it is. Will rent-a-friends have the option of ditching a client? If not, will they just become anxious witnesses, providing support to people who would otherwise realize how intolerable they've become?
Re:This is just beyond lame. (Score:3, Informative)