We’ve all been there before - friends want to meet us for drinks or to go out or get something to eat, and we’d rather stay in. And for what it’s worth, there is nothing wrong with wanting to stay in every once in a while. You should always feel comfortable spending time with yourself. The problem, however, is that more and more, people are staying in and becoming socially isolated.

Social isolation, once a fringe topic, has now become mainstream. According to the study “Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S.“ (Which you can read here), social isolation can be defined as “a state in which an individual lacks a sense of social belonging, true engagement with others, and fulfilling relationships”, and that it “is associated with increased morbidity and mortality”.

Being removed from others can result in a smorgasbord of health issues, including mental problems and vascular issues that could result in death. We hate to be morbid, but there have been many documented cases of people dying of blood clots after playing video games or spending time online.

Social isolation should, in theory, be fixed by spending time online. Then why does it not seem to be getting any better? In fact, why do we seem to be hearing and reading more and more about the subject every day? It it is time that we start looking at ways to combat this mental health crisis. We need something that encourages real, offline, social interaction while also helping people to feel included. Kuende is the only social media platform that is up to the task.

Kuende Encourages Social Interaction

On of the quotes from the study of the effect of social media on social isolation said:

“Another possibility is that those who use increased amounts of social media subsequently develop increased social isolation. Though in some ways this may seem counter-intuitive, there are possible mechanisms. First, increased time spent on social media may displace more-authentic social experiences that might truly decrease social isolation”

Social media has shown that it is still a source of interaction for many people. Most research on the subject has shown that people still can find interaction with online social media and engaging in groups that interest them. However, how long-lasting is the interaction on social media? And furthermore, how fulfilling is the interaction, really? There are many aspects to how we interact with each other. There is sight, there is touch, there is hearing, there is body language.

On social media, you are reduced purely to a text screen, and if you are really connected, sight (via video). To use a metaphor: At the end of the day, there isn’t anything wrong if you have fast food once in a while. But when you start replacing healthy meals with fast food because it is more convenient is when you start having a problem.

Social interaction is incredibly similar to the metaphor above. There’s nothing wrong with talking to someone on Facebook Messenger, or sending someone a snap. But when you start scrolling on your news feed to get your social fix instead of actually going out with your friends is when you will start developing issues.

Kuende is Changing How People Interact

Kuende is the first social media to truly bridge the gap with its gamified challenges that encourage people to interact in person. Users are rewarded with Kuende Points for going to meetups and other engagements that are enacted by members of the community. After receiving Kuende Points, users can redeem these for prizes that are distributed by the Kuende platform.

Another element that encourages social interaction is buy-ins of Kuende Points. One of the most highly touted statistics in the event ticket space has shown that free events and free RSVPs can result in no-show rates of 50% of higher. However, some challenges and social engagements require that users spend their Kuende Points to enter. Events where people have spent something have much higher rates of attendees.

Kuende Helps Foster Inclusion

Another quote from the same study brings up another point that we think is highly underrated: “Second, certain characteristics of the online milieu may facilitate feelings of being excluded. For example, an individual may discover pictures or other evidence of events to which they were not invited.”

Kuende challenges and social engagements are generally available to everyone within a group. When a user joins a group, they will be able to join any challenge as part of that group.

Kuende Promotes Interaction Through Challenges

Speaking of which, what exactly are challenges? I’m glad you asked. We’ve made challenges our way of encouraging people to get outside! Challenges are events created on the Kuende platform that require specific offline interactions and reward participants with points that can be exchanged for a variety of in-app rewards. Our team strongly believes that Kuende is tapping into the same gamification model that made Pokémon Go such a phenomenon beyond the nostalgia. Pokémon Go encouraged people to go outside and interact with people. It had teams and it had events that always included everyone that was interested. Plus, there was the rewards aspect of catching your favorites! People forged new friendships and relationships because of Pokémon Go.

In the same way, we can help stem the increase of social isolation due to social media by encouraging people to come together with tokenized rewards systems.

And how exactly do we help bridge the gap between online and offline? The digital services of Kuende include voice, text, and video chat that serve to facilitate real-life meetings in the challenges.

Conclusion

Kuende is helping rebuild the human social connection, and reducing isolation, through encouraging social interaction via challenges and by helping include more people. We are doing this through our gamified challenges that are powered by a blockchain and our Kuende Tokens and Kuende Points. To sign up for Kuende, please visit us at kuende.com. To learn more about our tokens and to be part of the movement, please visit ico.kuende.com.