The MIT 20 Day Stranger project is a social experiment that will have two complete strangers participate in a virtual life swap for a period of 20 days, where they will grow to learn more about one another, while learning almost nothing at all. Through an app, partners in the 20 Day Strangers project will be able to see where the other one goes and what they do during a day, but for privacy reasons, the information is anonymous and the only time they will ever get to connect is through a single message after the experiment has concluded.
With the web, it's easy to become detached and forget that there's a human behind every interaction, and as the director of the MIT Media Lab’s Playful Systems group Kevin Slavin describes, it helps to "give just enough to wonder and imagine and ultimately, to care."
The app is currently in beta testing and MIT is looking for applicants to help further the project's development.
Experimental Life Swap Projects
The MIT 20 Day Stranger Project Lets People Temporarily Swap Lives
Trend Themes
1. Virtual Life Swap - The MIT 20 Day Stranger project showcases the trend of virtual life swapping, offering opportunities for connecting people and promoting empathy through technology.
2. Privacy in Social Experiments - The 20 Day Stranger project highlights the trend of ensuring privacy in social experiments, opening doors for innovative ways to collect data while protecting participants' identities.
3. Humanizing Digital Interactions - The MIT Media Lab's Playful Systems group explores the trend of humanizing digital interactions, presenting possibilities for creating meaningful connections in a digital world.
Industry Implications
1. Technology - The virtual life swap trend presents disruptive innovation opportunities in the technology industry, such as developing secure and intuitive platforms for virtual interaction.
2. Social Experimentation - The privacy-focused approach to social experiments creates opportunities for innovation in the field of social experimentation, including ethical guidelines and frameworks.
3. Digital Communication - The trend of humanizing digital interactions could lead to disruptive innovation in the digital communication industry, with new platforms and tools for fostering genuine online connections.