Dumping someone you’ve only seen once or twice is tricky. Ghost them and they feel betrayed, but no-one enjoys being broken up with. But what if you had a chatbot who could teach you how to going about dumping a date you don’t wish to see again?
Well, Quartz, bless them, created the Bad Date Bot: a way to sprint through a Rocky-style training montage in how to let someone you’ve been out with know that, in the nicest possible way, they’ve seen the last of you.
You are presented with texts from archetypes which should be familiar to anyone that has dated before – the person with wildly incompatible interests, the person that’s perfectly nice but not for you, the person that’s a sleazy weirdo, and so on.
From there it gives you various options to respond, ranging from the firm-but-kind to straight-up ghosting to shrugging and going on another date and NO THAT’S NOT THE OPTION YOU WANT.
And as you conclude the chatbot tells you what you did right and/or wrong in your date dumping, with reference to some romance expert or other piece of useful intel, and… you know what? As such things go, it’s pretty darn good.
And look, it’s very cute and everything but it also has a genuine practical application, which is to give someone – maybe you! – the confidence to advocate for yourself, and and the words to express that in a respectful way.
And many human beings are very awkward about being upfront about not feeling it – especially the female human beings who are socialised to be deferential to the feelings of male ones.
So go forth, gentle reader, and let the chatbot end make you strong. Soon you’ll be dumping dud dates like a kind, respectful and self-assured HURRICANE.