Building Social Apps: Lessons in Human Connection from the Bar
On a quiet Thursday evening in a Brooklyn bar, Ode Babel, two men and two women unwittingly illustrate a poignant lesson for social startups. Drinks are served, and the two groups each dive into their own conversations, the men casting hopeful glances at the women in hopes of non-verbal invitation to connect. Amid the vibe, there’s an unspoken air of anticipation, an undercurrent of the possibility of connection.
Imagine this scene as a microcosm of social media. The bar with its various features — drinks, seating, and ambiance — mirrors the components of a social media platform: user feeds, chatbots, groups. However, just as patrons aren’t drawn to the bar solely for its physical amenities, users don’t flock to social media for its features. They seek genuine human connection.
Time and again, I’ve heard ambitious founders proclaim, “We’re building the Facebook for Teachers,” or the “Instagram for DJs,” failing to grasp that the magic ingredient isn’t the platform itself, rather the human connections it fosters.
“We’re building the Facebook for Teachers,” or the “Instagram for DJs,”
Facebook, with its 2.5 billion users, didn’t simply rise on the back of superior features. It provided a revolutionary way for a third of the world’s population to connect. Instagram rose to popularity, not just due to its rich, visual medium, but by enabling everyday users to become micro-influencers, to create visual narratives. TikTok unlocked the power of co-creation and content remixing, sparking fresh, novel connections between users.
There’s a long list of social media platforms that have bitten the dust because they failed to grasp this essential value. Google+ and Vine offered innovative features, but couldn’t foster a true sense of community. Yik Yak, despite its unique location-based approach, couldn’t surmount the barrier of anonymity that hindered genuine interaction. Meerkat found itself outplayed by Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook’s Live Video, which offered better avenues for real-time connection.
Interestingly, even startups like Poshmark and Depop, which blend social elements with a marketplace model, thrived because they recognized the importance of facilitating human connection. These platforms show us that even in a transaction-based model, social interaction remains a driving factor for engagement.
Moving towards a future of authenticity, BeReal presents us with a vision where users seek to construct more genuine portrayals of their identities. Gen AI provides fresh perspectives on identities and how we collaborate and shape our narratives. Human connection is less about feeds or bits and more about what lives beneath the UI surface. For deeper-dive in social app design strategy, see this [teardown of Facebook stories](https://quoradesign.quora.com/Design-Conflicts-in-Messenger-Day).
So, what’s the takeaway from our scene at the bar? Just like patrons aren’t there simply for the drinks or the seating, social media users aren’t there just for your brand or content feeds. They seek human connection. Any social platform, no matter how feature-rich or innovative, must first deliver on this basic, yet profound, human need.
Remember, no matter how advanced our tech becomes, at the heart of every successful social platform, you’ll find a simple truth: Humans crave connection. Without it, even the most bedazzled content feeds feels barren.
