Young people today have become so disconnected from people in the real world, there's some worry about what happens if they died and literally no one knew.
While the phenomenon is certainly global, it's particularly hard felt in China, where the BBC reports there are around 200 million one-person households.
Enter "Are You Dead?", an app for the lonely and disconnected.
Users must mash a giant button on the app once every two days to signal they are still alive, or the app will notify their emergency contact to let them know to call the funeral director.
It was launched in May last year to not much fanfare but attention around it has exploded in recent weeks with many young people, who live alone in Chinese cities, downloading it in droves.
This has propelled it to become the most downloaded paid app in the country.
Internationally, the app is called Demumu. It ranks in the top two in the U.S. and Singapore … and top four in Australia and Spain for paid utility apps.
Yeah. It's a paid app.
These people could literally call their emergency contact everyday and say, "How's it going?"
But instead, they mash a giant button to let the digital universe know they exist.
I mean, listen to this example story:
Wilson Hou, 38, who lives around 100km (62 miles) from his family, says that is exactly why he downloaded the app.
He works in the capital Beijing. He returns home to his wife and child twice a week, but says he has to be away from them at the moment to work on a project and he mostly sleeps on site.
‘I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place I rent and no-one would know,' he said. ‘That's why I downloaded the app and I set my mum as my emergency contact.'
This guy isn't even single, and yet, he's mashing the button and his mom is his emergency contact.
He has a wife and child he could call!
What has the internet done to us?
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
