31 January 2013

Casual Sex in times of the Internet - http://www.bangwithfriends.com

Surfing the Internet while watching TV with the housemates I stumble upon the newest Facebook app to hit the market: Bang With Friends will anonymously match up Facebook friends for casual sexual encounters. 

There was no way I wouldn’t investigate this any further. Click on the link and it opens up the website asking you to sign into your Facebook. But how does it actually work?! The website itself reveals the following:





Sign in with you Facebook, and it will take you to a page that feature names and photos of your friends. There users click on the “Down to Bang” button underneath the picture, which will then change the status to “Awaiting Bang.” The site claims that it will only show this to the friends if both have selected “Down to Bang” and are thus keen to exchange bodily fluids.

And while the concept seems simple and straight forward, I cannot help but wonder who would actually use this website. Creators claim that the user base already exceeds 30,000 and every minute this growth by 5 more people. Can I see any of my friends using this? Honestly, there are a few but I am pretty sure that I can count them on two hands.

I know that we live in a society where casual, no-strings-attached sex is often the norm. Nobody has time or energy for a relationship, and the element of 'being scared of missing out' is playing its part too. We are always on the hunt for the best, the newest, the hottest thing and commitment is no longer hip. But is Bang With Friends the answer to all that?



Finding non-committal sex can be difficult to come by. It requires going out, chatting up people and flirting enough to make them come home with you. It seems simple but the number of people hoping to take someone home but failing to do so on their weekendly trip to the pubs and clubs must outweighs the number who do succeed.

Have we really become so into easy, non-committal sex that we are resorting to sleeping with our friends? Or at least our Facebook friends? Considering the number of people we call our ‘friends’ on Facebook, using Bang With Friends could mean essentially that we are sleeping with someone that we once met at a party. 

This makes me think that, after all, you wouldn’t be banging your friend but rather some you know or at least your friends now. And while that may feel safer than going home with a complete stranger you meet at a pub or a club, in the end how well do we ever know the people we are sleeping with, whether they may be a really close friend or someone we met once?

It will be interesting to see whether this will take off or just disappear once the early media attention has faded. The app for a “quick bang on the go” is apparently under development but no official launch date has been declared. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘There is an app for that!’ doesn’t it?