The MessageParty App is everything that is wrong with technology

Technology is the art of crafting the world around us. It’s supposed to advance us in a positive direction; to connect us, make us smarter, more productive and more creative. But unfortunately, technology like a double-edged sword can also alienate us, distract us and drive us to monotony.

MessageParty advertises their app as a way to “encourage discussion at a lecture or in a classroom, to talk about a concert while it’s happening with fellow fans or while you’re waiting for the subway.”

To use MessageParty, you need a Facebook account because it pulls in your information and photo this way. With this app, your location is not visible to other people, but the app still of course wants to know your location. Other people will just be able to see when you are in a party with them.

Open the admittedly well-designed app and you have two choices, “Join a party” and “Create a party.” Choose “Join a party,” and the app will pull up a list of nearby created Message Parties. Click on a party and you can see all of the public chats, user names and their Facebook photos. Choose “Create a party” and you can give the party a name, and tag a location but you can’t invite contacts to join, they have to come on their own it seems.

Their tagline is “for chat in the real world.” But isn’t chatting in the real world about, well chatting in the real world and not on our phones? To be fair, this app could benefit people in locations where it’s had to communicate such as a concert or sporting event. But still, if we’re going to be on our cell phones during an event it’s usually just to find our friends to enjoy the actual concert or sporting event together.

My roommate brought up one good point about the bus stop situation in the video above. “Sometimes I do wonder what people are thinking around me. It might be a good way to meet other weirdos who want to know what I’m thinking too.” Ha, fair enough roomie.

One thing I’d really like to see is an app that does this but only for a “Who the fuck are you purpose?” You know when you’re at a party and you see someone you’re pretty sure you are either Facebook or Twitter friends with? I want an app that pulls up their social information based on our connection and their geolocation. Now that would be awesome. Credit to @Blakeley for his genius behind that one.

Bottom line: This app is probably only useful for people too socially inept to talk to each other in real life. And I’m not sure why they chose to feature a number of different phones in their video considering the app is only available for the iPhone at the time. If you want it, check it out here.