LONDON: A man has told how he spends up to R17 000 a year on mundane "fake girlfriend” texts – and insists he feels a connection with the woman he has never spoken to.
Ben, a 28-year-old software worker, pays £81 (R1 420) each month for his favourite Snapchatter to send him photos, messages and emails. He's one of a growing number of people paying for the attention – and nothing more – of minor Snapchat glamour stars.
And while cam sites and raunchy picture exchanges are nothing new, the rise in people paying for basic human attention is more unsettling.
Because rather than demanding nude pictures or racy messages, the deal is for Ben's virtual girlfriend to send him the more vanilla and mundane communications – the type you settle into in a longer-term relationship.
“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 said.
“If she has 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.
“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.”
It isn't a regular relationship, though. Ben, who doesn't wish to be fully identified, has never had a steady girlfriend (“too busy”), and says the arrangement makes “things feel normal”.
Ben sends her messages, too, and as part of the deal they can have occasional text conversations during the day.
He says the closeness makes him feel happy, and he genuinely cares about the part-time model, who has more than 20 000 Twitter followers and a Snapchat following.
And does he think he’s his “girlfriend’s” only guy?
“I don’t really go down that route,” said Ben. – The Independent