The problem...a case study
Go ahead and ask ChatGPT how you can find things to do around you…actually don’t. I’ll save you the keystrokes. It will list for you things like:?
Why is it that modern “social” media offerings do not have a comprehensive way to help you be social? The answer lies behind the eyes of this money-mouth emoji ??. The more social you are, the less time you are pretending to be social behind the screen.?
This presents a serious problem that is currently being addressed by a multitude of lawsuits against the largest players in the social media arena. The Social Dilemma (2020) pointed out that we are seeing a whole generation of more fragile, anxious, depressed people who are less comfortable to put themselves out there. How often do you come out from behind your screen and actually do things that interest you? How do you discover those things? How do you coordinate or share photos around the plans that you make??
Messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal have been a good temporary solution up until now as they offer group chats where people can post their events or ask friends to join them. The problem with this, though, is that chat apps were not meant for planning, scheduling or discovering events. They were made for chatting. They offer no way to drive engagement outside of a preexisting group.?
I can personally admit to having 17 muted groups on my WhatsApp. While this prevents me from receiving too many unwanted notifications from irrelevant content, I also miss out on important announcements, photos and events that I didn’t know I was being invited to. I made a choice to miss out instead of feeling annoyed by the buzz of my smart watch every 5 sec.?
While we have all been waiting for technology to show us a better way to connect with one another, the solutions posed thus far have really done the opposite. Significant efforts have been made to double down on our screen time by pumping billions of dollars into VR and “the Metaverse”. These solutions open new potential markets for advertising, virtual conferencing, and (most importantly) user data mining, however, they don’t serve the human need to physically connect in social settings.?
Imagine the personal experience of an average group fitness class:??
Today, we drive to class, warm up, maybe say something to the person next to us about how we’re feeling pre-workout, then do the workout and leave. If we already know someone there, chances are we may ask them to go get a post workout snack after class. If not, the experience (while physical) is less social.?
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Now let's look at how it could be:?
In the ideal metaverse fitness class, everyone has a sexy and well toned avatar. We can talk to one another but have no idea who the other person actually is. Do they even look like their avatar? Do they live close enough to go get a smoothie or protein shake after the class? If life were permanently like it was in 2020/21 (the COVID-19 pandemic), I could understand why this would be attractive. Being that we are not confined to our own physical bubbles, I’d like to pose a different scenario…
Imagine waking up and feeling like you want to move today. You decide to look for a fitness class. After you have checked your email, while checking your social media, you type in “fitness class today at 9:30am”. A list of clear results appear in order of relevance to your interests, scheduling habits, and scheduling habits of those who share common interests. You open a local spin class event that says you don’t have any friends who will be there. The songs that the class will be spinning to are listed in the description and there is an indicator that this is an intermediate class. It says that 9 people are already going and you can click on their profile photos to see if they look like people you would feel comfortable spinning with. You also notice that the event details feed has some text chatter happening. One thread catches your eye as the OP commented that they are nervous about the pace. You open the thread and there are a few replies supporting the original poster and assuring them that they can go at their own pace.?
You decide to attend the class by clicking a button to add the event to your daily agenda. You arrive 5 min early and recognize the people from the event details. Identifying the original poster of that comment you approach them and ask “Are you Ellie?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I saw your comment about being nervous. This is my first spin class in like 5 years. I have no idea what to expect.”
“Yeah. Hopefully it will be good. It was recommended to me on my Loopr feed, so I thought I’d try it out. The people seem cool but we’ll see how it goes. What’s your name?”
“I’m Meir. Nice to meet you. It came up on my Loopr too. Do you live around here?”...
You and Ellie decide to get an acai bowl after class at the smoothie place next door and become friends. You also decide to follow the spin studio on Loopr and select the instructor from your class so that you’ll know when she will be teaching in the coming weeks. The spin studio has just achieved a new customer. You have just developed a new healthy hobby. On top of that, you and Ellie have just become friends.?
This is just one example of how social media can be utilized to help us be more social. It can soften the anxiety of the unknown by giving a virtual taste of the experience while still encouraging users to physically attend. Loopr is inherently designed to emphasize the positive attributes of social media by providing a cleaner way to connect. It makes us feel better about ourselves, our friends, our community, and the world that we are leaving to our children. Imagine a world where we spent that hour-long break on a walk with a friend or at a tai chi class in the park rather than just scrolling. Let’s spend less time wasting, and more time doing. Join the social media revolution. www.loopr.me.