So I've been thinking about different things and suddenly thought about how someone could pay someone else to pretend to be their friend. Of course I googled it and found out that... there is actually a website for renting friends. For everything, except dating and sex.You can pay someone to go to the cinema with you, play scrabble, show you the city, go to a restaurant or concert if you don't have anyone to go with. My first impression was that it's a bit... weird, after all friendship is said to be one of those things money can't buy, but apparently some people use it. My question is, what do you think about it? Would you use a website like that?
I wouldn't, but there's a lot of lonely people out there. In my country, there are free programs one can join if one is lonely and wants a friend or a "big brother", you know, someone to take them out now and then or visit them or generally hang out with them and show them the ropes of the city and life stuff. Sooo I don't really see a need to pay for it. But in Norway, there was this case about how a lot of older people had lost a bunch of their money to some sort of "call a friend" phone services where they call an agency and get a "friend" to talk to. So I guess people are willing to pay for company if they're lonely enough *shrugs*
Why would you pay for something like this, though? You can always find people who enjoy the same things you do that you can go with and have a great time. If I paid someone to go somewhere with me, I'd feel very uncomfortable.
I have to admit... I would probably do it. I get very lonely very often, and I don't really have friends. I have some issues, and I get services... so I have someone who takes me for errands and the such... but if I had the money and someone said something like, "For $20 (or what ever), I'll take you to the cinema"... I'd probably be very tempted.
Sometimes loneliness gets to the point where that sounds like a great idea... in my world I can find people who like things I like and go out with them, but the price is being called things I don't want to be called and told them many times, or listening to them talk about how sick LGBTQ people are when they see a guy not looking "manly" enough and so on... so it's not nice.
I know everything about loneliness, but this still doesn't sound like such great idea to me. I'm sorry that people around you treat you like this and that you feel the way that you feel, but I'm sure that soon you'll find a friend who will not judge you for who you are! (*hug*) And of course, will want to do fun things together. Hang in there.
