(I just wear a Life Alert; no phone needed!)

From: https://shorturl.at/aR2fy (nypost.com)

===
Morbid `Are You Dead' app is the new panic button -- for lonely young singles
afraid of dying alone

   By Ben Cost
   Published Jan. 13, 2026, 2:54 p.m. ET

   It's like Life Alert -- for the young and dateless.

   A trending Chinese app is helping combat the nationwide loneliness
   epidemic by keeping tabs on singletons who live alone to make sure that
   they're alive.

   The grimly dubbed "Are You Dead?" app requires users to click a giant
   green button with a ghost on it every two days to verify that they're
   still breathing, China's state newspaper The Global Times reported. If
   they neglect to check in, the app will email the person's emergency
   contact on the third day and inform them that they could be in trouble.

   On the English-language site, where it's officially known as Demumu,
   developers said they reportedly devised this "lightweight safety tool"
   to make "solitary life more reassuring."

   "Whether you're a solo office worker, a student living away from home,
   or anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle, Demumu serves as your safety
   companion," the page describes.

   Since debuting in May to little fanfare, the $1.15 single status
   tracker has taken the digital sphere by storm, becoming the most
   downloaded paid app on China's Apple store.

   Techsperts attribute "Are You Dead?'s" [sic] popularity to the epidemic of
   people living by themselves in Chinese cities -- the fallout from the
   One-Child policies, rapid urbanization that separated people from their
   families and other factors, Gizmodo reported.

   According to Global Times, the country is projected to have 200 million
   one-person households by the year 2030.

   "People who live alone at any stage of their life need something like
   this, as do introverts, those with depression, the unemployed and
   others in vulnerable situations," said one user on Chinese social
   media, the BBC reported.

   One user, Wilson Hou, 38, who lives around 100km (62 miles) from his
   family, said he downloaded the singleton tracker so that his loved ones
   could collect his body if he died.

   While he commutes home to be with his wife and kid twice a week, Hou
   said he has to be away from them for the time being for a project, so
   he spends most nights on the job site in Beijing.

   "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."

   However, others were put off by the somewhat morbid name, with some
   suggesting they change it to "Are You Alive?"

   "Death has both a literal and sociological meaning," said one social
   media commenter. "If it were changed to `Are You Alive,' I would pay to
   download it."

   Reps for the firm behind the app, Moonscape Technologies, said they'd
   be refining the product by "adding a messaging function," and mulling
   over people's name suggestions.

   They also pledged to explore similar products that catered to the
   elderly -- a must in a nation where a fifth of the population is over
   60.

   It's yet unclear if/when this app is winging its way to the US, which
   has also been suffering from a severe loneliness scourge, especially
   among young men.

   A new Gallup poll last May has revealed that US Gen Z and millennial
   men are the loneliest (25%) compared to only 18% of American women in
   the same age group.

   According to the study, one in four American men under 35 feels more
   isolated than their peers in other countries -- including France,
   Canada, Ireland and Spain.
===

-- Sean

... If you want your friends to remember you, borrow something from them.
--- MultiMail/Linux
 * Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)