The concept of date shadowing.

[Uniquemind]

So I think I invented a concept of "date shadowing".

And I'll describe what I mean by that once I get some responses.

But first I want to know if anybody else thinks the idea is a good one.

The concept is to get a friend to shadow you in secret when you're out in public on a date, unbeknownst to your date, in order to provide you the maximum protection and support in case you need to bail, or are endangered, or get stood up.

[Hudor]

Well the concept doesn't seem to be too appealing to me. I think this sort of measure wouldn't be suitable considering I'm going for a date rather than some dangerous undercover mission If security is the concern, I'd rather take appropriate measures like meet in a public place, be alert and wary of anything unusual. But I wouldn't want a friend to be tailing me for protection because if I don't trust the person enough to take that measure, there would be no point in dating him. Secondly, if he got to know somehow about it, that would be a serious breach of trust for the relationship if it happens later. Thirdly, I would consider it an intrusion of our privacy and a considerable distraction.

[Let Me Be a Pony]

Reminds me of that time when 2 escaped convicts devised a plan to kidnap girls - one of them would pretend as a photographer from a magazine and the other one would be hiding in a car, waiting for his partner to position one girl near the car for a photo pose in a public beach area. We can guess the rest of the story, which later evolves into murder.
But change this up a little bit - If something goes wrong within a date, you'd need a strong person to be on the lookout, bro. Who would ask for a strong friend to be on the lookout during a date? A person who is insecure about the date. What would the point in a date be if there's insecurity? If one person is to take advantage of another person, they would first start with lies and manipulation, doing their best to leave out insecurity, to mask it at the very least. You'd need to have a lookout on every date to be sure nothing wrong occurs to you. Other than that, the lookout would be stalking their ongoing date in a way. That shit ain't natural. This is the same as having a bodyguard, though only during dates.

[SillyShyGuy]

Your term "date shadowing" is probably a form of "third-wheeling" or a form of being stuck in the Friendzone. What could it possibly be?

[Babs]

I mean... You couldn't just call your friend up afterwards? You have to have a friend creeping from a distance? Do you need bro support like 15 seconds after you get stood up?

I... I don't see the point dude. It's just weird.

[ObliviousCat]

I think it's a good concept, but exclusively for going on a blind date or meeting someone from the internet for the very first time. This could prevent kidnappings, harassment, etc. I'm pretty sure this has already been thought of, however.
I don't see the point in bringing along a friend if you already know the person well enough or have at least gone on a few dates together prior.

[Abhorrence]

The issue is that it is just a concept and needs to be tried out before it is fully realised. Conceptualising things is obviously the exposition of everything but without experimentation then there is no way you can know if it will work out or not.
I personally think that the idea is good as a concept but in reality, I doubt it will work. I mean, your friend could get extremely bored and there's phones for a reason. It's not very often that a date is THAT creepy that they're going to rape and murder you. It just seems more like paranoia to me. If something was that bad on a date then you could always just stand up, say you're going to the bathroom and then disappear for ever. Or you could just call the friend that was going to shadow the date.

The idea kind of reminds me of that episode of iCarly (don't judge me, I liked that show) where Sam and Freddie are on a date and ask Carly to be there to stop them arguing. She was sat on a completely different table on her own, basically pissed off the entire time. I wouldn't wanna be in her position.

[AutumnWinds]

So I think I invented a concept of "date shadowing".

And I'll describe what I mean by that once I get some responses.

But first I want to know if anybody else thinks the idea is a good one.

The concept is to get a friend to shadow you in secret when you're out in public on a date, unbeknownst to your date, in order to provide you the maximum protection and support in case you need to bail, or are endangered, or get stood up.

i mean more power to you if that's your thing...but it doesn't seem appealing to me, honestly. and if i found out my date had someone doing that, that would be the end of the date.

[Uniquemind]

Thanks for the feedback!

In retrospect it sounds like a good idea in theory, but you're right in practice it would suck.

I was playing around with the idea of this in the context of blind dates though.

Not dating someone you know already where there is a small amount of trust established already.