2 ms·

I think loneliness, like many of the world's solvable problems, is in fact an information problem. Solvable somehow by an information system. There are more hum

I think loneliness, like many of the world's solvable problems, is in fact an information problem. Solvable somehow by an information system. There are more humans now than at any time, we are more densely packed, and have more means of communication or establishing contact than ever before, with the ability to communicate over great distance without (technical or economic) difficulty or significant cost. Yet loneliness is all around us and is a plague of our times. I'm not sure what "the answer"is, but I think those who work in and with information systems in the broadest sense, might contribute to its cure.

greentxt 2y ago
Monetization is a problem. Early on apps like tinder and even some dating websites worked, but at some point the incentives to keep people isolated and single win out. If the app works, people stop using it. Similar to how engagement works on most social media, it isolates and makes people more hostile rather than fulfilling the need that brought the user there in the first place. Should call it anti-social media. Economics ensure that the problem is never to be solved by any technology platform that attempts to. Maybe if the government builds their own non-monitized apps, that might work. But, security is hard, given great power competition, government funded dating apps would have difficulty on that front. Inject a lot of fake profiles and you could collapse birth rates. I sometimes wonder if that isn’t the point of TikTok, an app that decreases birth rates in a subtle and indirect way.