Saturday, 25.5.2013

Aherk Self-Blackmail App Threaten yourself to Succeed

[22/05/12] 

Aherk is an innovative self-blackmailing app that embarrasses yourself into finishing tasks you’d otherwise fail. If you don’t succeed at your designated activity then Aherk publishes a humiliating photo of your choosing onto your Facebook profile. Simple. Our first thought was that finding an embarrassing photo wouldn’t be too difficult, but judging by the carefree sharing on social media today, it’s hard to think of something that would actually cause a ripple, beyond Paris Hilton II.

The idea, of course, is to choose a photo (known as the bomb) that arrests you with shame. The pic of you going home with that dubiously shaped Thai ‘woman’ should suffice. After uploading it to Aherk along with a goal like losing 10lbs, cleaning your sheets every week, or enjoying a full season of Gossip Girl (shoot me), just set yourself a deadline and embark on your quest.

Here’s the challenging part (beyond the challenge itself). The people who decide if you’ve completed the task are your Facebook friends. They have three days to decide and cast their votes, but if our experience is anything to go by, they’re not going to let you off the hook. There needs to be some kind of mutual incentive, such as everyone having a goal with an accompanying death photo. Or you could enrol your mother as the only judge, but no one wants their mother inspecting their sheets.

Ahoy there.