I've started Krewe (https://www.gokrewe.com/get_started) to help people make a group of friends in their neighborhood and build a strong local community, but I think there should be other companies who's focus is on fostering real personal interaction.
I lived the last moments of the 'mahalle' culture in Istanbul, Turkey, held its hand while its cerebral activites stopped. Until a couple decades ago streets were full of kids and we didn't have any problem with it. Now we hardly let them out, we fear that they'll be kidnapped, fruited, etc., sometimes also realistically. How we came to this point?
The 'mahalle', that is the neighbourhood, is a culture developed over time and is based on the trust you derive from generations of sharing the same cultural and social sphere. This was disrupted three times in the last century, first by hostility towards the non-Turkish induced by nationalism, and its results, second, by mass migration towards the City caused by industrialisation, and lastly and currently with the 'walled communities' (1) and occidentialisation of work life, i.e. rapidly changing occupations and moving houses often. I guess the case for most of the US is similar (i.e. people don't get to share the same neighbourhood for that long), and under these circumstances a healthy local community is impossible to form, even if all the start-up eyes were turned on the problem, because it has a hard dependency on multigenerational relationships, and time spent together.
(1) a very interesting documentary by AlJazeera Turkey on this phenomenon exists.
Note: I know it causes more lonliness
Then there is also the cult of individualistic freedom, which almost by definition means less interest in others.
You have a great website there. I wonder, however, if proximity means anything nowadays. A long time ago, it used to be that neighbors were relatives, or part of the same tight knit cultural community. Nowadays people have scattered randomly, and almost the only common denominator between neighbors is their income bracket. I would like to see a startup going the opposite way , i.e. helping people who 'fit in' with each other to become real life neighbors.
Individualism is definitely part of the problem that contributes to loneliness. We've been bombarded with propaganda since we were children about the virtues of independence and self-reliance. Living on your own and not needing other people has been romanticized. But humans are so much happier around people, so that culture definitely needs to change.
I hope to make proximity mean something again. I don't think people need to be bound by anything to get along. Everyone has had a wealth of life experiences they can share. But their is something undeniably special about being able to walk around the neighborhood and come across people you're friends with. Or walk into a local pub on a whim and find a group of friends already there.
That doesn't really mean much. It's not that they do or don't get along, it's that no challenge presents itself to define if they get along or not. The ability to get along is defined by surviving that challenge.
>I don't think people need to be bound by anything to get along.
Then why does hardship or shared experience make more closely bound couples?
> Everyone has had a wealth of life experiences they can share.
But only a few of those are actually interesting. When you go down to a club, even though there are a lot of people there, statistically you'll only talk to a few. Technology, in it's ability to erase communication distance, brings you closer to many more interesting people even though you don't see them.
This means most self-help organizations are either non-profit, bankrupt, or foster customer-dependence on their line of products or advice or books etc.
Evolving as a society will sove this, and for a society to evolve, its parts must evolve.
So the first step to end loneliness is to work on yourself.
I have gone to a few meetups. Which is a technology based product. It has helped me meet people and end loneliness.
This has nothing to do with the evolution of society, as you put it.
Organize locals, but for low paid(/volunteer) help with cleaning/cooking/gardening/computer support/driving lessons/etc. For busy/ill/lazy people?
Then, people can be introduced to each others.
If they have some activity/interest to talk about, it is easier to socialize with different types of people. I sincerely believe that every adult person on the planet knows about things I would love to hear about. Be it fishing, farming, literature or house maintenance.
(No, I'm not just trying to find good cleaning help. :-) )