I decided to invite the most hated friend in New York City into my home. In late 2025, ads for a new AI wearable called Friend began appearing across subway cars and station walls — and New Yorkers responded by covering them in graffiti. The backlash was visceral. But what I noticed underneath the disgust was something more complicated: people were already talking to their chatbots the way they once talked to close friends. As therapy. As a place to process the things they felt too guilty to keep burdening the people around them.

Exploring the ever-changing relationship between technology and culture, I tested this new wearable designed for companionship, not productivity. What started as an investigation into new forms of surveillance became a study of the loneliness epidemic we find ourselves in today — and the quiet labor we perform to maintain the relationships that hold us together. Drawing on Reddit communities, critical theory, and one very honest conversation with a recently divorced friend, this paper asks: what does it mean to offload care? And what gets lost when we do?