We Tried Crowdsourcing Our Most Confusing Texts And It Was A Bad Idea
Forget this #CharlieCharlieChallenge nonsense. The internet recently unearthed something potentially way more useful than a demon who can only give you mere yes/no answers to life's most critical questions.
Or at least, that's what Textie claims to do. Since you can crowdsource just about anything these days -- an essay about your genitalia, a spring break trip to check up on visit your girlfriend -- Textie decided it's time to start crowdsourcing responses when you can't figure out how to respond to a questionable text.
In other words, when someone texts you an eggplant emoji and you don't know WTF to say, strangers can tell you how to respond! Sounds awesome, right? What could possibly go wrong?! (We're being sarcastic here, if you couldn't tell.)
MTV News staffers tried out Textie with real messages we had no f--king clue how to respond to. Turns out the general public is just as helpless at answering weird texts as we are. Surprise, surprise.
Exhibit 1: The Phallic Vegetable
The Message:
The Suggested Responses:
Fruit goes with veggies, right? Just like the real meaning of eggplant goes with, uh, families? Baby-making? What even.
Exhibit 2: The Drake Fantasy
The Message:
But...
Sadly no one from Textie stepped up to the plate with a response for this one. Drake must've left them speechless.
Exhibit 3: The Bloody Mystery
The Message:
The Suggested Responses:
Okaaaayyyy then...
Exhibit 4: The Drunk Text
The Message:
But...
C'mon, Textie users! Surely you could've come up with a badass response to this, right? Though maybe in some cases, this text is better left unanswered.
Exhibit 5: The Tinder Prowl
The Message:
But...
We at least expected a Hilary Duff "Sparks" music video reference here.
Exhibit 6: The Article Pitch
The Message:
The Suggested Response:
The answer is most definitely gremlins. Gremlins steal your socks.
So what did we learn?
Our little experiment was pretty much a flop. For the most part, no one gave us genuine response suggestions, if we got any at all. Not everyone on Textie is a troll, though. The community took a user's post about eating disorders pretty seriously. There's also this one about what sounds like a complicated relationship situation. So maybe it's the right tool if you just have the right questions.
Like with everything on the interwebs, though, take everything people say on Textie with a grain of salt -- but you already knew that!