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Ask HN: Will you pay to have a anonymous friend to talk with?

3 points by discoverfacts ↗ HN
I was wondering what if there was a service which is based on talk therapy and where you can have a virtual friend who is a real person and can be based on your preferences like gender, hobbies likeability, language, region and many such options. There is no restriction as such to what you can talk, fully secured & end-to-end encrypted with decentralized mode of operations (server only works to propagate connection between two nodes.)

A truly Anonymous talk therapy service

2 comments

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mattbgates
It's always nice to talk to someone... and everyone needs someone to talk to. You can try starting it off as a free service and offer a Pro plan though I must warn you: unless you're creating your own business, running your own business, or somehow are teaching it as the university level, psychology either requires more education for better pay or you make your own way.

Your idea does already exist on my first google search: https://freeonlinetherapy.org/

I'm sure you could explore your options -- we are currently living in world where the pandemic has caused a majority of the world to be in quarantine lockdown in isolation. There's a reason that solitary confinement was ruled as inhumane. Yet, here we all are... some of us are lucky or not so lucky to be locked in a house day in and day out with our families while others are lucky or not so lucky to be in a small apartment by themselves day in and day out with just a virtual connection.

I'd say go for it, but do your research beforehand. Just know that there are heaps of free services out there including phone lines people can call and talk to someone for free. And in society we currently live in... many people aren't looking to pay any money for such a service.

That's just my thoughts.

discoverfacts
Thank you for spending time to write. The idea is moreso to have everyday people to talk with each other whereas with volunteer based model/free therapy model you cannot scale, the use-case is purely medical and people often don't take the plunge.

My assumption is that, if you are aware that the other person who you are talking is no different than you and is not trained person you are more likely to share.

The idea is not to have counseling based model. Further Talk therapy does not require professional training. Basically you can talk to anyone. I am moreso proposing this to those set of people who really find it to hard to make friends online or in-their social circles, or want to share something very deep secret about them which they cannot tell it to anyone expect a stranger. This like a having dedicated friend with whom you can talk and for sure the friend will get paid to talk with you.