In Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist play No Exit, one of the damned souls concludes that “hell is other people.” Nearly 70 years later, that quote has inspired a new app that helps you be as anti-social as possible.
The app, Hell Is Other People, leverages Google Maps and Foursquare API to help users avoid all contact with people that they know. Since social networking is all about connecting people, I guess we can call this a truly anti-social networking app.
The app uses your friends’ Foursquare check-ins to generate an “avoidance map,” complete with orange dots representing your buddies’ locations and green dots representing “optimally distanced safe zones.” It also shows you pathways to each safe zone, so you can take a stroll around your city with a low probability of running into anyone you know.
Having a bad face day? A little too hungover? Looking to actually relax or get some work done without the distraction of human interaction? This app’s for you.
“This project is partially a satire, partially a commentary on my disdain for ‘social media,’ and partially an exploration of my own difficulties with social anxiety,” says the app’s creator Scott Garner.
