Apptastic: Will KickOn do for friendship what Tinder did for romance?

A new app, KickOn, described as the “the Tinder of Events” by its founder was released last week, allowing hardcore ravers to locate an after-party close to their location. The app works to unite those who just don’t know when to call it a night by encouraging users to swipe right if they want to request an invite to a party, or swipe left if that shindig on their screen just isn’t their thing. After applying to your pardee of choice, the host will choose whether to approve you and give you access to a digital party ticket known as a “kicket”.

Although only those that really don’t care about the welfare of their house would actually host such an event, KickOn have tried to promote responsible partying by installing a reputation system into the app. After the last revellers have left, the host is able to rate three people as “MVP” – Most Valuable Partier, allowing future hosts to see who would be the best party guests.

Sceptical of the success of such an app, due to the fact that a) who would actually want to invite a bunch of drunken strangers to their house and b) who would want to go to a drunken stranger’s house, an Australian news reporter set up her own KickOn party. The event was to be held on a Monday night and she described herself to potential party guests as a 21-year-old born in 1987 who loves cats who promised to provide donuts and beer. Three hours later she had over 100 responses to her invitation and had to resort to begging the KickOn founder to close down the party. It seems there really are people out there up for partying with some randoms, especially if beer and donuts are involved.

The app aims to combat the problem of Facebook events going viral, resulting in innocent parties making the news due to hoards of unwelcome guests turning up in the party location in question. While the host only offers the address to guests they have approved, this doesn’t stop these guests bringing a load of mates and the original guest-list problem incurring. KickOn has compared themselves to Tinder, known for filtering potential dates in a very shallow way, and I don’t see why the same thing wouldn’t occur on KickOn. The host could accept a whole party full of blonde 21 year old girls, only for them to find this out once they are in the home of this person – doesn’t seem very safe to me.

In the past decade using the internet to find a potential date has transformed from the taboo, used mainly by desperate 40 something’s, to a social norm. Meeting up with a complete stranger in the hope romance may blossom is a regular occurrence and it seems this concept could be moving on to friendships as well as relationships. These apps are seen as a faster and more efficient way of getting the end result you desire. Why spend evenings making awkward conversation with someone you have nothing in common with, when you could download an app and filter down some dates with actual potential from your own home? Why grab all the random stragglers left in the club at the end of the night for your crazy after party when you could have your choice of the elite partiers at the click of a button? In theory it makes sense, and I’m sure some people will find success with these electronic match makers, but it’s slightly scary the amount we rely on technology for both our work and now personal life.

The app is aimed at university students who “want to meet new people and expand their social networks.” I’m sure that’s exactly their aim when attending these after-parties…the app will most likely start to become more of an invite to a SeshOn than a KickOn.

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