Rethinking Social Media

Vivek Murthy, surgeon general of the United States under the Biden Administration, wrote a book about mental health and loneliness and how social media is contributing to it. The rise of social media is linked to increases in loneliness and is said to have a negative impact on self-image and mental health. This is partly due to the fact that in many cases social media is just used as a highlight reel for our lives. We post things we are proud of and things that make us happy and that we want others to see and nobody can be faulted for wanting to put the best aspects of themselves on display. But as you scroll through Instagram or Facebook and all you see is the highlights of other people’s lives it can seem like yours pales in comparison. 

Social Media has also changed the way entire generations communicate. Social media has allowed important discussions to get the attention they deserve and social movements to be born. Spending time on TikTok or Twitter you learn an entirely new vocabulary that people who don’t won’t understand. On social media, you subscribe to new sets of social rules, behavioral norms, and ways of communication and for our generation, social media represents an entirely new societal playground on which to prove yourself.  

But since social media clearly is not going anywhere and will most likely just gain importance in the way we and future generations interact we must ask ourselves how social media and its most attractive features can be used to decrease loneliness and enrich peoples lives.  

According to surgeon general Vivek Murthy, social media will have an actual positive impact on users once it is not used as a place to watch others and passively interact but as a tool to foster genuine real like human interaction and connection.  

And that is exactly what Xpereince does. Xperience is a platform that allows users to interact in the way they would on traditional social media platforms – with profiles and posts and friends (followers) etc. but is based around the concept that it is used to find, join and plan real-life activities! It combines our favorite aspects of what we know social media to be with a new way of planning and living social interactions. Changing how social media is used from a passive and isolated experience to interactive, community-driven with real-life experiences is the next step in how technology can impact communication and social life. 

Our goal is to create a platform that brings people together, allows people to enrich their social life and leisure time, try new things, have great experiences, and have a community to share those with: and that platform is Xperience. 

Written by the Xperience Team