The best moments in life are almost always our interactions with other people.
Sharing your stories and emotions
Being heard, accepted, and understood
Learning from others, getting inspired
Doing things together
Helping others and being helped
Getting recognized for your work
And very soon, our best relationships will live online. For immigrants, new parents, minorities, career-changers, and remote workers it's incredibly hard to find people with shared values and interests in close physical proximity.
People nearby aren't like you
You change work often, freelance, or work from home
You stay at home to care for kids or family members
You move often and your friends are also moving
Your interests and values change and the old relationships fade away
To bring back the magic, people need to rebuild their social life in an online-first way
Bring together like-minded people from the whole world Create watercooler-like places to learn more about each other Start new individual relationships with chats and video calls Grow relationships through shared online activities: discussions, mentorship, collaboration Build habits that keep your most important relationships in sync
Today's social networks are built to serve advertisers, not people
They optimize for time spent to show more ads They learned that media addiction, not friendships leads to more time in the app They made people compete against each other to make the best content for the feed They discovered that primal content (fear, sex, vanity) works better and made it a priority
Brands and top creators took away all attention and energy from building personal relationships Competition for the feed made most people quiet, uncomfortable to share The primal content and media addiction led to stress and anxiety
In short, social media became the world's most popular drug leading to isolation, silencing, and stress.
In 2020, at the height of global pandemic, a new generation of social products is showing up. These apps are built on community spirit, not media addiction.