A study of communion, emotional poverty, and the commodification of human compaionship
The follow up to my Epal.gg Companion Service Review
Average Read Time: 9-10 minutes
Twelve Epal companions were interviewed with the following series of questions. Responses were picked where applicable. Not everybody gave detailed answers, and some didn't care to comment. All responses have been anonymized and grouped by topic for ease of reading :)
Average Read Time: 21 minutes
All images within this article are sourced from the https://www.epal.gg website, or https://archive.org, unless otherwise specified. All images and contents are intended for research & commentary purposes only.
Online companion services come in many varieties. Some platforms are relatively harmless, whilst others leave you questioning the morality and ethics behind its creators. For me personally, Epal.gg lands squarely in the latter category.
Something that's struck me over the past few weeks, has been the comments I've been reading from thousands of ex-Twitter users who have moved over to Mastodon recently.
Average Read Time: 9 – 12 minutes
In this article, I show off examples of companionship advertisements found on the online profiles of companion-for-hire websites. A seller's profile usually comes with a brief summary of the kind of companion services they are expected to provide. And while there is of course crossover, the characteristics of these adverts seem to differ in tonality by region. These are handpicked examples that I felt crystalized the general differences in undertone, presentation and intention, distinct to sellers located in Eastern or Western environments respectively.
Average reading time: 6-7 Minutes
(Disclaimer: This article is a generalization of companion service descriptions I've come across on Fiverr.com & Epal.gg in 2021.)
Over the course of many interviews within the companion sales market, I came across an interesting set of notable differences between Eastern and Western sellers.
In casual conversation with friends last year, I remember taking note of how companionship sellers originating from Eastern regions tended to spin their initial pitch and justification for their services differently than their Western counterparts.
Average read time: 2-3 minutes
“Underlying the issue of online parasocial relationships is a global shift in human communication that no one was prepared for. The world has changed so much, but people have not. We still seek out communities, companions and camaraderie – even if its through a screen.
The social opportunities that were once afforded to the previous generations have all but eroded away. Social gatherings, public venues, and face-to-face interactions that were once the foundations of community are rapidly fading away in place of more logistically efficient methods. The people and places of the past are the virtual friends and viewers of today.
Humans themselves are slowly being written out of the equation.”
~ Glink, from The Parasocial Problem with Livestreaming
Average Read Time: 7-10 Minutes
The world of purchasing platonic companions online has grown over the past few years. There are more than a few major websites to pick as a point of entry for this topic, so I'll begin with what I feel is easiest to digest.
Average Read Time: 14-17 minutes.
(Please read the Project Overview for further details)
“This blog space is intended to cover topics that reside under the umbrella of the Commodification of Human Companionship – partly for study, partly for my own curiosity.”