Breaking up is hard to do, and even harder when reminders of a lost love remain plastered to the Internet forever.
In the age of social media, our lives are closely documented, for better or for worse — and when personal relationships end, all the things we've documented in those relationships can haunt us, hindering the healing process.
Digital marketing company Clearhart Digital seeks to change that. The company has released a new app that seeks to remove every sappy status update and cute picture haunting the newly broken-up.
"KillSwitch is for anyone fresh out of a break-up looking to move on. What if they have a lot of pictures of their ex and they don't want to be reminded of that?," co-founders Erica Mannherz and Clara de Soto told Business Insider. "KillSwitch is also for anybody that has had a falling out, be it a friendship or coworker, any relationship that you really don't want to have evidence or traces of on Facebook."
The app discreetly removes from Facebook any proof that a relationship ever existed. Just give the app a target (your former beau), and KillSwitch culls through your profile, deleting pictures, posts and statuses automatically. KillSwitch keeps its actions quiet, too, so your ex won't know how much emotional pain he/she is causing.
And for the flighty? The app isn't permanent, it saves all of your deleted pictures in a separate folder, just in case you end up working it out.
"We have a friend who deactivates her Facebook profile after every break-up," the co-founders said. "We don't see KillSwitch as a vindictive tool but part of a greater healing process."
Part of KillSwitch's proceeds will go to the American Heart Association so, as they put it, "broken hearts can help mend broken hearts."
The app is available Thursday for Android, and soon for iPhone, for $0.99.
