Besides the standard Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr, I have apps on my phone to check the weather, check my bank account, check the status of the subway, browse and/or buy a whole assortment of different stuff, and even one to track my menstrual cycle. But how about an app that tells you, after 14 days, whether you should break up with your boyfriend? Is this taking the whole my-phone-is-my-life thing too far?

Here’s how it works: you plug in your boyfriend’s name (FYI, no “girlfriend” or “partner” option- big thumbs down on that), and every day for two weeks the app prompts you to rate how you’re feeling, on a scale of “Totally Over Him” to “Totally In Love,” and to leave a comment about what’s new with your relationship. The basic idea is that by charting your feelings over time, the app can identify trends and tell you whether your relationship is good for you on the whole. On one hand, this makes some sense, right? It can be hard to see beyond our day-to-day and figure out whether something is good for us. On the other, the idea of letting a computer handle our romantic decision-making seems more than a little… creepy.

 

Super intrigued, I downloaded the “Should I Break Up With My Boyfriend” app (heads up: it costs $0.99), and I’m currently on day four of my 14 day relationship digital evaluation. I can’t tell you how it’s going because the app hides all the data until the end. But I’m pretty sure I’m not going to break up with my boyfriend, even if it tells me to. Why not? Because I wasn’t really thinking about breaking up with him in the first place. Maybe downloading an app called “Should I Break Up With My Boyfriend?” is a sign that you should, well, break up with your boyfriend. Or at least seriously think about it. What do you think? How much trust would you place in advice from an app when it comes to making decisions about your relationship?

-Alex at PPFA