Convenience Apps: Applications that deconstruct errands or processes that would normally take time away from your day, minimize their impact on your schedule, and remove them from your immediate attention.
These convenience apps aren't bad at face-value. In fact, they are good for simplifying many processes and getting things done on the fly. The proliferation of these apps, however, has thrown the baby out with the bath water; the baby being happenstance social interactions.
Nowadays, everything comes right to your door. A meal from the restaurant down the street, groceries, that appliance you saw scrolling through Amazon, images and videos of beautiful people, even the dopamine hit you get from socializing. The issue with this may or may not be obvious to you as an individual based on your personal experiences. Many have found themselves socially isolated and cocooned by these invisible forces. This isn't a subjective statement to be clear. It's been documented that loneliness has doubled since the 1980s, as has the depressive effect that social media has on the younger generations.
Some highly extroverted individuals may navigate this landscape fine, but many are left out in the wilderness to fend for themselves.
Without semi-mandated socializing, some people will do it very infrequently. With an acknowledgement of the risk of being hyperbolic, we're creating a generation of hermits and super-extroverts. This is bad for many reasons. One reason is the health issues that result from loneliness for extended periods of time. Another is the lack of introverted thought being proliferated in certain circles. Many extroverts are astounded by the differences between their less social compatriots and themselves. I would venture to guess that introverts are more reflective, but perhaps that's just my biased perception speaking. Regardless, some introverts have worthwhile ideas that are being shared exclusively in online introvert echo chambers, while the social class are only being exposed to those who 'touch grass'. Unfortunately, we'll see the implications of this in the years to come. Some have already started to rear their ugly heads with an incredible political and societal disconnect between those who socialize and the internet dwellers who'd rather not. Incel subcultures, extremism on all sides of the political spectrum, and much much more seem to be early indications of a social system gone awry.
Honorable mention to the exceedingly worrying economic inequality in the United States. This certainly isn't helping any of these issues either.
PLATO5 is meant to be the antidote to this. Whether it works or not supposedly depends on me. Fun. PLATO5 is designed for the sole purpose of bringing people together in the real world. This makes it a tool for the younger generation to potentially reclaim their social autonomy and take proactive and reactive steps to improve the dire straits they may find themselves in. Of course, this depends on people's willingness to put themselves out there, but while I'm constantly preoccupied with reducing socially intimidating circumstances on the platform and minimizing friction in the process as much as possible, I cannot force people to use the service and meet someone new. I'm contented with building the tool that makes loneliness optional however.
If I'm successful, we should see a measurable drop in loneliness. If we don't, then I guess I failed. To accomplish this we'll need a user base bigger than 15 people (which I'm working on). This mission is personal to me and I hope to make the aforementioned dent in those loneliness numbers and build something that sets a new standard for making friends in a more convenient age.