Social should be social

If you’ve ever felt lonely, you’re probably not surprised to learn that you’re not alone. And despite living in a world that’s more connected than ever, feelings of social isolation are on the rise across almost every demographic.

In adults, loneliness is a major precipitant to health issues such as depression and alcoholism. In fact it’s such a serious issue, that the UK recently appointed a Minister for Loneliness. Studies have found that adults with strong social support have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, inc. depression, high blood pressure and an unhealthy body mass index (BMI). It has even been found that older adults with a rich social life are likely to live longer than their peers with fewer real connections.

And as most people will attest, forming new relationships as an adult can be difficult. We may be connected, but are not connecting. We believe that technology can make forming these connections easier and more accessible for everyone. So we are building Miit, a platform to bring this technology to the world.

What is Miit?

We’re building a product that makes connecting with others easier and more accessible for everyone.

On the surface Miit appears like any other social platform. You can scroll your feed, post, like, comment, chat with friends and keep an eye on events and activities happening in your area. So it feels familiar.

But the way Miit functions is actually quite different.

Rather than being a stand alone network, Miit is a social utility that plugs in your existing social feeds, as well as your tastes, interests, and activities and combines them with your location to build a complete picture of who you are and what you’re into.

We use that information to make it easy for like minded people to find each other whilst maintaining their privacy. These are the people you would most likely want to miit in real life.

We then provide the tools to make it easy to for our users connect with like minded others they find nearby. And because we understand that many friendships form passively over time, Miit works great for introverts too.

The challenge ahead

Social isolation is a serious problem and one I strongly believe can be addressed with the right approach. I’ve seen its effects not only in my own life but as a father of teenage girls the negative impacts of social media have been really highlighted to me.

If we can get it right we can make life better for a huge number of people all around the globe and that’s something worth working towards.

Big Social has failed on it’s promise to bring people together. It’s time for something new.