Would you take advice from strangers? That's what Honest, a new app aims to do, allowing users to pose questions and remain anonymous giving them a chance to share their painful secrets and taboo topics
Honest, a new app puts you on a virtual couch as you open up your heart and your mind to absolute strangers on the net. And as scary as this may sounds, the creators of the app believe that it can actually help people talk about their problems.
More about the app
Honest was launched last month by two London advertising executives, Ed and Rob Watts. It harnesses the power of 'collective intelligence', a buzz phrase coined by Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg about the future of the Internet. Co-creator Ed says, "Using anonymity has allowed us to remove all of the social norms that can unknowingly skew a person's opinion, such as relationships, history, social background, age, race or gender. We wanted to create a place where you can go to get unbiased opinions and advice from a cross section of a global society. At the core of it, we see Honest as being a platform where people can be open and truthful, and help each other out. Honest was created with a single-minded purpose of help and advice."
You should not blindly trust the advice given by strangers
And while in principle the concept and the end goal of the app may not sound so bad, experts are a bit skeptical about the advice you are likely to receive. Psychiatrist Anjali Chhabria for one believes that the app does have its pros but one has to be cautious while using it.
She adds, "No matter how progressive we think we are, there are still certain topics which are taboo even today. Especially, topics related to mental/sexual health, which have a stigma attached to them. Many of us are curious by nature and have a lot of questions but do not know where to find the answers. This app is a platform giving users a chance to voice their secret thoughts or opinions and queries and get advice from strangers. Many will turn to it for the cloak of anonymity it provides. Having said that my concern is that a lot of people are willing to give you free advice, but it may not necessarily be the right advice. Unless this app has professional experts who are monitoring or supervising the advice given, you are completely on your own. As the advice you receive is totally dependent on the experience and the mental health of the people answering your questions."
What you should do?
If you do decide to check it out, have fun with it, but take the advice given with a pinch of salt.
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