[Trendzilla] Don't Touch That Dial!

Comments (0) By VICKIE CHANG Thursday, May 7 2009

Remember back when things weren’t so complicated, and you could get totally tanked without having to worry about picking up your cell phone and, say, dialing your boss and/or ex-girlfriend and spewing something along the lines of, “OH, MY GODDD, I’M SO DRUHNKKKKK”?

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Yeah, me, too.

It’s a weird byproduct of our technology-dependent society today, but it’s here, and it’s a formidable adversary: drunk dialing and texting. With stories, voice mails and messages being relayed in social circles everywhere, it was only a matter of time until a blog, TextsFromLastNight.com, was dedicated to sharing those drunken communications. Its tagline? “Remember that text you shouldn’t have sent last night? We do.” Some of our current favorite submissions include “Dude, don’t freak out, but the girl who stuck the hair brush in her ass is here. I can’t look her in the eye!!” and “Just made out with a pet sitter. His biz card says ‘even hamsters.’ Lowest point in my life.”

As entertaining as the outcome can be (that is, for everyone but you when you booty call your supervisor), one man has taken it upon himself to come up with a preventive measure, swapping out self-restraint with a 99-cent iPhone application.

John Genest, 25, of Boston, is the man behind the Bad Decision Blocker, a program that allows you to avoid many awkward morning-after conversations. The Bad Decision Blocker allows its users to block communications with anybody you (don’t) want for any allotted period of time. The number basically disappears from your mobile until you say it’s okay again.

“I came up with the idea, in theory, about two years ago. It was wishful thinking until Apple opened its platform and launched the app store,” explains Genest, a sports-marketing consultant. “I got the idea from personal experience and from my friends’ blunders.”

Genest shares an all-too-familiar story about a late-night call to an ex-girlfriend. By the time he finished his rambling monologue about how sorry he was about the way things ended (and how much he still cared for her, of course), he realized he’d actually called his ex’s house line. It was her mother.

“[The Bad Decision Blocker] actually prevented a friend from prank-calling his former boss, which I wish had happened,” admits Genest. “It’s quite the social epidemic. The access cell phones provide is a gift and curse.”

Now, the real question: Is there such thing as drunken Twittering yet?

The Bad Decision Blocker is available in the iTunes store, $0.99. For more info, visit baddecisionblocker.com.

vchang@ocweekly.com