While in the past people lived in small groups with stable social connections, many people in the modern world often find themselves alone or feeling lonely.
For most of human existence, people lived in tribes or small communities, with the same group of people throughout their lives. A person could not survive alone.
Nowadays, many people are isolated from their family as they move to live far away from them, sometimes changing their city or country of residence. Our friends also depart as they move to different places, and connections with them may weaken. So the process of forming new social connections continues throughout our lives.
For many people, it is challenging to continuously form new social connections. It may raise feelings of loneliness, alienation, frustration, and even depression. There is talk about an “epidemic of loneliness” 1. This problem worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic (2019-2021) due to the “social isolation” policies mandated by governments.
Hence, we want our System to help us:
- Manage these emotions
- Form new social connections in a pleasant way
- Maintain and deepen social connections
1 U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called loneliness a public-health “epidemic.” The United Kingdom appointed a “minister for loneliness” in 2018.