“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”

When I moved Northern Virginia near the end of COVID, I was shocked by the lack of social groups and gatherings in my area, even with a substantial population. Later, I discovered talks of a "loneliness epidemic", and just how much loneliness is out there in a standard year.

The following are sources showing the extent of this:

• Hours per day spent alone - Washington Post / American Time Use Survey
• General loneliness metrics - Edward Conard
• Social media not fulfilling social needs - National Library of Medicine
• 2024 Rising loneliness and causes - Harvard 

Though I cannot tackle the entirety of loneliness, I suspect that a chunk could be fought with an app-based approach that fights many causes listed on Harvard's page. Replacing hours on anti-social social media, and engaging people in meaningful, in person interactions is the goal of Wake.

Pillars of our app based solution will include:

• Forming and finding common interest groups for individuals
• Increasing the ease of finding casual non-formal happenings around the area
• Catalyzing interactions of new group members with existing ones through innovative procedural approaches

The first phase of the product will include building out a compelling messaging system with event managing integration.