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Apply HN: 8Yet? – Social in old fashioned way, i.e. face2face

6 points| dingquan | 10 years ago

Problem: Online social networks have killed people's ability to have deep, meaningful conversations. People value quantity over quality, speed over depth. We talk in emojis, LOLs, likes, shares because that's fast and easy. Teenage girls get up in the morning and reply dozens of snapchats without even reading the content. Fear of missing out has driven us spending hours everyday catching up with all the social feeds. At the end of the day, we're still left with an empty feeling that we're ever more isolated than ever. When I go out with my wife for dinner, we ran out of things to say in a few minutes. The silence is unbearable and we desperately reached out to our phones as our savior. Voice, the way we communicate to each other for hundreds of years, is facing distinction.

Solution: Actually I don't have a solution. Changing people's behavior is the hardest thing in the world. But I figure we can take baby steps toward fixing the problem by having a tool that allows you to meet up with different people nearby for lunch to practice small talks and regain your ability to talk like it's 1995. You can practice the same joke over and over with different audience until you nailed it. Then you can go home and impress your partner.

Product URL: https://goo.gl/41DhCI

10 comments

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mechanical_fish|10 years ago

We didn't have iPhones in 1995, but television filled the same role. The result was no better. It was probably worse.

We'd spend hours watching TV, often while simultaneously being really bored. I can hum the theme song to "Eight Is Enough"; nothing found on Facebook is more terrifying than that.

dingquan|10 years ago

but you can't carry your TV around like cell phones. I still feel the problem is worse now a days. Also when you are watching TV with someone, at least you're watching the same thing together, which often spurs conversations. Now everyone is fixated to their own phones, each person has no clue of what other people are reading on their phones.

Geekette|10 years ago

How would this differ or gain an edge on the several existing portals, groups and apps based on socializing? E.g. avenues like meetup.com, which has several groups, including some for different social needs. There are also many online groups/clubs based on matching people (randomly and interest based) for socializing around meals.

dingquan|10 years ago

My goal is to have a tool that is fast and easy to find people to hang out with nearby (easy as calling Uber). Meetups are usually formal gatherings where someone gives a speech on some topic. And only group owners can call meetups. While my intent is to have more casual gathering where anybody can initiate a meetup call for others to join.

pjlegato|10 years ago

I'd actually like to start a device-free "Startup Social Club" in San Francisco, where people can go to chat with real humans around them directly. Mail me if you're interested in this...

buss|10 years ago

Will this end up being a dating app? Would that be a bad thing?

What happens if you get paired with someone you don't like?

Do I get to see who I eat with before meeting them?

How do you make money?

dingquan|10 years ago

>> Will this end up being a dating app? Would that be a bad thing?

Old version of my app was one to one match (tinder style) which has a strong feel of a dating app. Current version is for small groups to get together. That still could be a way for people to find dates. Personally I don't feel it's a bad thing. My ultimate goal is to provide a tool for people to gather and social like it's pre-digital age. Because personally I feel that face to face meet up provides 10x better satisfaction than reading feeds online. Whether it's dating or professional networking, I don't mind.

>> What happens if you get paired with someone you don't like?

"life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." If you don't like the person you met, don't see him/her again. :) Again, the app works as small group meet up, so hopefully one of them is fun to hang out with.

>> Do I get to see who I eat with before meeting them?

Right now you see a picture, a short bio that user provides and the person's interests. All as information to break the ice when meeting face to face.

>> How do you make money?

I don't know... People are used to paying nothing for apps. I'm still in the stage of testing how many people have such needs. All revenue models are just theories until there are ton of people using the product.

dingquan|10 years ago

there's a known bug that tapping the "no plans nearby" card will cause the app to freeze or crash. A fix in in the review by Apple.