Letting go of a relationship is hard. It’s even harder, now, thanks to social media and the little blue screens we gaze into and tap away at for hours every day. Facebook knows you lurk your exes’ pages and has developed a tool to help you keep away. Shryne, however, seeks to do the opposite.
The new app, launching today, January 28, is the digital version of the memory boxes we keep beneath our beds or on the top shelf of our closets. It promises safe storage for all the photos, messages, emails, and other forms of interaction you’ve had with the individuals you choose to create a folder for. There’s also an analytics portion that quantifies your social life. It’s essentially free, but offers larger storage deals for $9.99 and $19.99 a year.
Shryne’s intentions are good: Who doesn’t want to entertain the idea of storing the virtual interactions you have with your closet friends. It’s execution, however, is clunky. It takes a while to set up your respective shrines. You first have to select all the cyber platforms you want to archive and then what parts of that platform you want to archive. The process is probably as seamless as it can be at this point, but so much effort and prep work goes into setting up your archives that it makes you wonder whether it’s worth investing in it at all. Which brings up the whole ex situation. We all know sifting through your old memories of a former flame isn’t becoming for anyone. Studies have shown this kind of wallowing hinders the natural process of getting over it. It raises the risk of developing depression, anxiety, and unhealthy longing. So why go through the effort of enshrining that on your smartphone or desktop? On top of that, why pore over the analytics of your relationship to see things like who was more responsive?
On the plus side, there is potential for Shryne to benefit your non-romantic relationships. If anything, it can be fun for you and your BFFs to thumb through your virtual time capsule one night. Shryne’s layout is Instagram-pretty and its analytics page doesn’t talk down to the user. You can learn a lot about how you relate to others through things like that. So, download and use it as you see fit. As for the exes, let nature do its course and unplug. Your real-life well-being is much more important than the billions of pixels that have the potential to knock you off your feet again.
