Anonymous Friends
Today I was talking with colleagues about friendship and communication, openness and safety. For some, dialogue comes easy. For others, it’s hard to string a couple of words together. We recalled online games with private chats, secret forums, anonymous clubs of interest. Is it really that relevant?
Yes, it is. And it’s still in demand. Time moves forward; the problems remain almost the same. But the solutions change.
There are many resources on the Internet now that offer a wide variety of communication options, both free and paid. Different topics, languages and formats. I was interested in this question out of curiosity. How anonymous and safe is such communication? Who might need it, and who would look for such communication?
Having talked to different people both online and face to face, I got the impression that almost every second person would like to share their ideas and thoughts. But many are stopped by shame, embarrassment to do it in person or fear of publicity. But the need remains. Neither the church, nor a psychologist, nor a chat, nor a social network can provide anonymity to the proper extent and confidence in one's physical or psychological safety.
I am not talking about maniacs, although they have the same need. I mean all those who have "unclosed gestalts", fear of being ridiculed, criticized or condemned for their thoughts and actions, who do not have money to go to a psychologist or fear that medical confidentiality will cease to be such. Group support sessions of anonymous "someone" are also not suitable, because attention is dispersed from one person to the entire group, and each participant in such a meeting is ultimately left alone with their thoughts.
Why is such secret communication necessary? Because there is a need to speak out, but it is not possible to achieve it in the usual way. Need an anonymous interlocutor for private communication, who will not see the face, will not hear the voice, will not save the correspondence for the purpose of blackmail, will not accuse, reproach or evaluate in any way. Someone who will simply listen, support the dialogue, but will not impose and pester with continuation, will not interrupt and drown out with his own world, will not burden with his problems. A safe impersonal "friend", the same as the one who is looking for communication.
Demand creates supply. I will not say that the search was long, but "out of friendship" they shared with me the contact of someone who does such things, and for a fee. It turned out to be a strange experience, which was more like a visit to the doctor than a regular conversation. It is strange to say this, but I ... liked it. How was it?
At first, contact was established strictly through Telegram, and the first acquaintance took place. Telegram, because private chats can only be created on a phone or tablet. Both parties obviously want security. OK. Of course, my address was not the one I usually use, and the number is hidden. What if they are scammers? Although it is not clear what to be afraid of. The blacklist exists for a reason. Then we discussed a preliminary date and time for the conversation, because getting to know each other does not count. Almost like a doctor's appointment!
If the communication is regular, a fee is charged for it. But there is a "trial period" of one or two sessions of one hour each. If you don't like it, you can stop everything right away. By the way, the receiving party can also refuse. This is not an AI or a ChatGpt, but a living person who also makes a choice. I hope that I will not end up in a verbal brothel. By the way, if desired, the topic of communication can be chosen in advance so that the interlocutor has time to prepare before the meeting.
On the appointed day, I received a link in Telegram to a private chat for two people, only for me and my interlocutor. In our conversation we did not touch on the topics of gender, age and geography. Theoretically, by the manner of speaking, words and typos you can guess the gender and age, but when all messages are immediately deleted, it is difficult to "catch" the interlocutor. And why? We agreed that the "lifetime" of messages would be 5 seconds, but either side can always and at any time change this. No screenshots, no recordings. I just wanted to talk it out, and I succeeded in full. My interlocutor (whoever he or she was) politely supported the dialogue and spoke in a language I understood without jargon and newspeak. If my interlocutor was a foreigner, then I was not able to find an automatic translator. The time passed pleasantly, easily and sincerely. Since such private communication is paid, we also discussed the possibility of purchasing a subscription for a week or a month, the number of sessions per week, their duration, dates and times. By the way, the session time is only in the range from 10PM to 4AM of Moscow time, from 1 to 2 hours at a time. I was a little confused by this condition, but then everything became clear: the interlocutor is either in other time zones, or it is connected with some kind of offline work, because of which such a range was chosen.
Personally, I have enough communication during the day, offline and direct contacts, and the Internet is used only for work and communication. I have no secrets, psychological trauma, maniac tendencies, phobias, stress, loneliness and other reasons for continuing such communication on a regular basis. Although, perhaps, I have all the above reasons, but I fill the need for communication without a computer or phone. In any case, my curiosity is satisfied, and new experience is gained. For me, this turned out to be a pleasant attraction. I admit that for some people this kind of anonymous communication, in this Internet format, is exactly what is missing. I think that the fee for the sessions is taken simply to filter out those who come without a clear idea of why he or she needs it, and do not take the conversation seriously. Most likely, the interlocutor is also looking for those with whom it would be interesting to talk and spend time usefully. But I may be wrong here. I admit that if you communicate "heart to heart", you might be able to persuade your interlocutor to communicate for free. However, the Internet is big and it is probably easier to look for free analogues on the Internet. Most likely, there are more than enough of them.
It is good that such things as anonymous interlocutors exist. I liked the communication, I liked this "game of secrets", but I do not need this on a regular basis. A couple of recommendations have been sent to friends; they are night owls and chatterboxes, they will find it useful. They seem to use it, but I will not check. It is personal! If you need the contact of the person with whom the communication took place, write to the telegram address @feyanon