If there’s anything that defines modern society, it’s desperation for as much as approval as humanly possible. Social media in particular feeds into our attention-whore nature.
Now MIT has decided that apparently we don’t just need to have this catered to online, but in the real world. With a “hug vest”.
Despite sounding like a prank, this is actually a legitimate experiment built by the MIT Media Lab:
like a hug HR 1 2 from Melissa Chow on Vimeo.
Yes, every time you get a “Like” on Facebook, for any reason, this vest will automatically inflate and give you a mechanical hug. Because getting a hug from an Internet controlled balloon, in public, is in no way pathetic whatsoever.
Of course, this is mostly just an abstract idea. MIT’s Media Lab is mostly about screwing around with technology to see how it can be used for communication. For example, they also invented that trillion-frames-per-second system that captured light striking a surface for the first time in human history.
On the other hand, their project list runs eighty-one pages, so, really, they can’t all be hits.