Lonely? Rent a Friend
Published: August 3, 2010
Would you pay to hire a friend for an hour? Although there are plenty of online dating sites, RentaFriend.com may be the first to offer a friend-connection service … for a price. It will cost you $10/hour to connect with a friend in your local area. The website describes its services as follows:
RentAFriend.com is a website that allows you to rent local Friends from all over the world. You can rent a local Friend to hang out with, go to a movie or restaurant with, or someone to go with you to a party or event. Rent a friend to teach you a new skill or hobby, or to show you around an unfamiliar town.
They note that a person might use their service if they are “Just looking for someone to give you personal advice.” Although the “friends” you connect with will likely have no professional training, they note that “There are lots of people who just want to get real advice about a situation and it’s always great to get an outsiders point of view.”
This service taps into our intrinsic need for intimacy. One of the deepest human longings is for intimacy; not only sexual intimacy (although that’s what intimacy often means these days) but the experience of having a good friend to live life with. Although there’s of course a chance that a real friendship could result through RentaFriend, doesn’t paying for (temporary) friendship cheapen and demean what can be one of the greatest experiences and blessings we can have? Erwin McManus explores the deeper longing for real intimacy in this brief video clip:
>> Click here to watch part 2 of the video
If you’re feeling lonely or just need someone to talk to but aren’t quite ready to pay for the privilege of connecting with someone, you can try contacting a mentor to talk about what’s been going on in your life lately, it’s free and confidential.
Hi,
Of coz, it is great to contact a mentor to talk to for some issue but, can the mentor share a thought with you daily, weekly.
The mentor most likely couldn’t know who you are.
So sad that many of us are in need of friendship but still this group of people are not connected together to form a group to support each other.
Haven’t said that, it is still great to have this lovely website that allow people like me, a lonely person to share my thought here.
Thank you very much
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Grace! If you or anyone else is interested we also have live chat on this website which is open nearly 24 hours, as well as specific daily chat times/topics: Chat rooms
Hi Darren,
Thanks for the reply.
I am trying to figure out how to join the chat room.
Hi :) There are two main chat rooms, the co-ed room (for men & women) and the women-only room. You will need to have Java installed on your computer to use them. (Click here to get Java if you don’t have it already.)
Co-ed (men & women) chat room
Women only chat room
It may be worthwhile to read the online safety tips too. Hope this helps!
Hi Darren,
How do I register? they ask me for user name and password.
How do I set up the account? if needed?
Thanks
Grace, you don’t need to register, it shouldn’t be asking for a user name and password. You should see a screen that looks like this: http://imgur.com/9JKnY.jpg Enter your your User Name and press Connect and you’ll be taken to the chat room.
Sorry for bothering Darren, but it does ask me for password after I click on, connect.
Grace, I think you’ll have to choose a different user name … the one you are using must be reserved for one of the chat administrators. So please try using another user name and it should let you in without a password.
Thankyou very much Darren, I now can get into the chat room.=)
When I was twenty or so, and still living in my very tiny hometown, I visited an aunt in Scarborough. It transpired that she had to go out on a certain day, and the night before, I mentioned to my mom that I might head over to downtown Toronto. Mom, who’d heard all sorts of horror stories about the city, said, “Oh, I wouldn’t want you doing that without an escort.” So I did toy with the idea of phoning an escort service. I mean, I knew what they were selling, but if you’re gonna advertise yourself as an escort, hey… So yeah, I could see a market for that sort of thing.
Of course, once you’re established in a place, and know a couple of people even just to see them, pretty much anyone is willing to dispense advice for the price of a latte. And it’s a good way to make a real friend.
Link exchange is nothing else except it is only placing the other
person’s web site link on your page at suitable place and other person will
also do same in support of you.
cat….my prayer is that jesus would bring you true friends, brothers and sisters in the Christian faith. blessings!