Summer’s over and the craving to chase around girls in skirts and sundresses during hot weather happy hours has given way to crisper air and the desire to melt into your couch with a girl in your favorite t-shirt binging Netflix.
Or, if you’re Ben, a 28-year-old software engineer, a Snapchat girlfriend is sufficient enough to get him through these romance-inducing months.
Ben pays $100 a month to receive personalized Snapchats from a Snapchat ‘glamour star’ with 20,000 followers, according to The Independent. Ben insists that the Snapchats with this unnamed model resemble more of the mundane talk one would have with a girlfriend, rather than the spicy nudies one may expect for the price.
“In the morning I could get a Snapchat selfie with ‘good morning baby’ written on it, later in the day she might message me on Kik (a messaging app) about how her day at work has been. It’s not crazy stuff,” he told The Independent.
“If she’s come down with strep (a throat condition) I’ll know about it, if she’s got a headache she tells me, and if she’s out partying I get Snapchats that no-one else sees.
“There’s never really any hot stuff … for most of the time it’s the sort of thing you’d find in any regular relationship.”
Ben, who claims he is “too busy” for a relationship says the relationship makes “things feel normal.” He replies to her Snaps, giving her information about her day and sparking up occasional text conversations during the day. When asked if he believes he’s his girl’s only guy, he replied, “I don’t really go down that route.”
Ben isn’t alone in the virtual girlfriend game, as services like Invisible Girlfriend and Dream Lover have become quite popular with guys looking to connect with girls they admire.
This is either bizarre and pathetic or a genius long-term investment by Ben. If this dude drops incremental game on a girl who wouldn’t pay attention to him otherwise and she ends up falling for him, he successfully gamed the system. And for that I commend him. Until then Ben, your $100 bill is due for a Snapchat about a stranger’s sore throat.
[h/t Independent]