Want
to have sex with your Facebook “friends?” Have you already tried
drunkenly messaging them, writing suggestive posts on their “wall,” or
poking them, without a single poke back? Then Bang With Friends, the new
Facebook app created by three unidentified college-aged males, may be
for you.
The
app, which launched a week ago and had already gained more than 20,000
users in four days, is aimed at matching users with potential partners
who don’t want to beat around the bush. (Sorry.) Designed to take
rejection out of the equation, the app only notifies “couples” when both
parties want to bang: just make sure to click the “only me” privacy tab
when installing the app.
The creators of the app are a trio who, for now, would like to remain unknown to the public. A Who's search
for the BangWithFriends.com domain name comes up with their
registration information blocked, revealing the creators are web savvy
and have taken the extra step to keep their identities hidden. While
they don’t want their names attached to the BangWithFriends.com legacy
in the making just yet, they did open up about their first project as a
team.
“[Sex]
should be something you’re expressive about, that you’re comfortable
with, and if there’s a beautiful woman or a handsome man that you’re
interested in, you shouldn’t hold back,” said one of the app’s creators.
“We’re just giving you closer access to knowing the truth.”
However, early reviews of the hook-up tool haven’t been kind. The Daily Dot suggests the app is an indicator that society has forgotten how to communicate verbally. The Inquisitor pointed at the app’s contact email—pimpin@bangwithfriends.com—as proof that “This app was created by a 7th grader.”
But
the creators, who graduated from middle school (and beyond), have
loftier goals than one might imagine. “By being honest and forward,
we’re taking the no bullshit approach [to sex].” But who would use such
an honest tool? “It’s mostly our demographic,” said one creator, “people
in their twenties, recent college graduates and people in college.”
The California-based group thought of the idea as a way to improve standard online dating sites like eHarmony
or Match.com. “One night, we were shooting the shit about how online
dating is broken,” said one creator. “What a lot of people want is just
to skip all the shit and get to the sex.” The conversation evolved to
Facebook, a social media platform used mainly
by 18-34 years olds, many of whom are in college and use social media
to connect with pals. “It would be great, as guys, if you could find out
which girls are actually into you and not dance around anything,” he
said.
“We should be able to say ‘bang’ and ‘fuck’ on our site because that’s how we talk in real life.”
But would women, who exceed males in Facebook’s users by nearly 9 percent,
want to know which guys want to “bang” them too? The creators claim the
app, which displays a partially naked woman lying on a bed as its
homepage image, isn’t just for men. BangWithFriends.com is laden with
imagery targeted at the heterosexual male (for example, the “doggy
style” icon cutout, and a “how it works” tab that showcases an
illustration of a man rolling on a condom), but just four days into its
inception, the app had already matched 1,000 couples who mutually want
to bang, so perhaps there is some method to the seemingly male-oriented
madness.
“The
crowd that we’re looking for is forward and straight about their
sexuality.” And straight they are, as the app currently doesn’t take
sexual orientation into consideration. But according to the boys, this
wasn’t a jab at the LGBT community.
“We’ll
be honest with you, we made this in two hours… with a lot of Red Bull
and vodka … and it took off on its own,” one of the creators said. “What
we’re working on right now is building sexual preferences. I personally
am completely towards gay rights. We want to give everyone this awesome
access to finding people who want to bang.”
But
lack of customized sexual preferences is just one of the problems the
team initially encountered. An earlier version of the app didn’t take
into account the presence of family members among a user’s Facebook
friends, displaying anyone from grandfathers to siblings as potential
“bang” buddies. This has since been fixed, and while you can’t be
matched with your uncle, the BWF team doesn’t want to limit user’s
pairings too much—for example, your relationship status will likely not
be taken into consideration. “We’re not too [sic] objective to hooking
up with that cute secretary across the office if she has a boyfriend
already,” said one creator.
According
to the 20-something founders, hooking up—with the “cute secretary” or
anyone else—shouldn’t be something to whisper about. BangWithFriends.com
makes use of many slang words for sex: click on the “how it works” tab
and the URL includes the words “fuck” and “how.”
“Sex
is such an awkward thing to bring up in our society, and we don’t think
it should be,” one of his cohorts said. “ Our philosophy is that sex
shouldn’t be taboo. We should be able to say ‘bang’ and ‘fuck’ on our
site because that’s how we talk in real life.”
And
in real life, sex often blossoms into a relationship, according to the
founders, and not the other way around. By helping users “anonymously
find friends who are down for the night,” the app may be selling you the
idea of a genuine relationship. “It’s less about one-night stands and
more about getting people to be more blunt with the way they’re
approaching each other,” said a creator. “We believe relationships
really evolve after you have sex with one another.” Another creator
added, “There aren’t many people who haven’t had sex with their loved
one, and we believe that it’s crucial to have that intimate first moment
to get things going.”
Whether
they’re building relationships or simply pairing up mutually attracted
couples for one night of play, the theme of their application
undoubtedly revolves around sex.
And at some point, the creators had to have “The Talk” with their
parents. “I spoke with my folks the other day… I wouldn’t have told them
unless it took off,” said one creator. “I told my father to go check
out Buzzfeed and look at the home page. He was cracking up hysterically. I grew up
in a household where there wasn’t much taboo around sex. It was all fun
and games.”
But
even for the founders of BangWithFriends.com, their product warrants
some limitations. When asked if they would let their younger siblings
use the app, there were a few seconds of hesitation.
“I
would definitely block [my little sister] from using it,” said one
creator eventually. “We should actually create custom alerts if any of
our younger siblings log on,” he said to the others. “And then just
completely shut down the site for them. Be like, “Sorry, we know you.”
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