Originally posted by Jennifer L on September 18, 2019.
When trying to think of which app would fit under this week’s theme of mobile culture, I tried to pick an app that has changed and influenced the way I currently do things. After coming back from my trip last Sunday, my group of friends and I all joined Splitwise to help us track our finances and figure out who owes who, and what. (In hindsight, joining this before the trip would’ve been more efficient). Prior to using Splitwise, I had lingering concerns about how to bring up wanting to be opted out of certain expenses because I didn’t really participate in said activity, but didn’t want to seem stingy or cause awkwardness! Splitwise took care of that easily. Each expense can be edited to include specific participants or the whole group in general. Wasn’t a part of the Shake Shack midnight run? No problem, “x” your way out! Everyone just puts in all their expenses and at the very end, you click “settle up” to pay people in your group back.
Splitwise has certainly made group trips a lot easier. No one has to feel obligated to pay for the next Uber, or feel bad that they haven’t contributed. It’s taken the financial bit of travelling out of equation. I don’t mean for this to sound like an advertisement, but I really enjoyed using this app and will be using this every time I travel in groups now!
Split Wise reminds me of the prisoner’s dilemma: a classic example of a game where two gang members are arrested and imprisoned in solitary confinement. There is no means of communicating between them. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge, but they have enough to convict both on a lesser amount. Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each prisoner a bargain. Each prisoner can betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime or cooperating with the other by remaining silent. The possible outcomes are:
• If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves two years in prison
• If A betrays B, but B remains silent, A will be set free, and B will serve three years in prison
• If A remains silent, but B betrays A, A will serve three years in prison, and B will be set free
• If A and B remain silent, they will serve only one year in prison (on the lesser charge).
The prisoner’s dilemma game can be used as a model for many situations involving cooperative behavior. The label “prisoner’s dilemma” may be applied to problems not strictly matching the classic or iterative games’ formal criteria in casual usage. For example, those in which two entities could gain essential benefits from cooperating or suffer from the failure to do so find it difficult or expensive—not necessarily impossible—to coordinate their activities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#Real-life_examples
This app is definitely a representation of modern mobile culture right at our finger tips. I always think that it is easiest for one person to pay for everything on a trip and then divide that total or else it is far too confusing. Now with Split Wise, you can conveniently and easily add what you’ve purchased and split between others on the app. I find this app accessible for all users, all you need is basic technology skills, and it even assists you and reminds to you make bank e-transfers. Ideal for our busy lives.