Why Crossworlds?
For many of us, it’s the people in our lives—friends and family—that enrich us and our experience on this planet.
But life is hard. It’s demanding. It keeps us all busy. Despite a desire to do so, we often don’t get to spend time with those we care about. Our schedules are all over the place, and figuring out “who is free to do what” has become increasingly difficult.
That’s where Crossworlds comes in. We want to make it easier for folks to connect with the people they know. Whether it’s a night out with friends for sushi, or a weekly stroll in the park with their grandparents.
The Social Media Problem
On the surface, you’d think that the solution to a lack of connectedness with our closest friends and family would be social media. We can use it to contact almost anyone we know, along with millions we don’t. We can share pictures. “Like” those same images and/or text posts. Scroll through an endless amount of funny or interesting videos made by some truly talented people.
And yet, for many (or most) of us, social media has never been able to scratch our social “itch”. In fact, it often makes it worse. Makes us feel more lonely and self-conscious than we were before. All while consuming countless hours of our time. At the end of the day, while social media can be useful, we don’t believe it should be the main way that human beings connect. It’s time for a different approach.
That’s why we at Crossworlds wanted to build a new kind of social app. Let’s call it a “social sidekick”. An app that facilitates genuine person-to-person interaction. No filters. No infinite scrolling. No fear of missing out. We’ve tried to create an app that supplements your social life, without consuming your time and attention. It’s all the social without the media.
Message from the Founder
While I’m not exactly Gen-Z, I always say I “grew up with the Internet”. Of course, when I was 10 years old it was all about shoddy dial-up connections and AOL chat rooms, not short-form video and legions of social media influencers.
Though as much as the Internet has changed, at its core, it’s the same as it was. It’s a technology that has great utility in our lives. A place where we can find things to make us laugh on an otherwise uneventful day. A place where we can check out all the latest stats on our favorite sports team. A place where we can buy tickets to a concert featuring our favorite musical artist. Yes, the Internet is great when it comes to many things.
But it’s never truly been great at bringing us together. Instead of using it to bring us closer to people, we’ve used it to show off and boost our own (fragile) egos. To start flame wars with those we don’t even know. To try and silence our inner critic and prove how “important” we are compared to others (despite the inner critic telling us we’re completely insignificant…perhaps our greatest fear). Instead of bringing us closer to others, it seems that the Internet—and its unending reel of pictures, videos, and text—has only widened the gap.
The inadequacy of social media in filling that gap has led many people to the question: “What’s next?” After all, what exactly does a good social app look like? How do we figure out how to make this whole internet thing work for us, not against us?
But to paraphrase the classic 1980s movie, War Games, maybe the only way to win is to not play at all.
That doesn’t mean we do away with social media and obviously not the Internet. But maybe, when it comes to our social needs, we need social apps that try to do the opposite of what they’ve historically tried to do, which is simply: keep us scrolling for as long as possible.
Maybe the app itself shouldn’t be the main feature. Maybe we need apps that occasionally get us off our phones and laptops, so we can focus on what matters most, i.e., building real relationships with real people. And when we do use these apps, can we just “skip to the good stuff” and use them to catch up with our close friends and family? Maybe meet a new person or two who shares our interests and is presented as more than just a handle(@) and avatar picture?
That’s ultimately my goal with Crossworlds. To build an app like that. One that helps us get out of our heads and into the present moment with those who already enrich our lives. To connect us with family members we know we should visit more often, with old friends we should probably check in with from time to time, or even with that new person you met last week who seems like they’d be a cool person to hang out with.
If that all sounds good to you, then please do help us on this road. Give us your feedback, both positive and negative. Share your ideas. Share your enthusiasm. Help us create an app that we all deserve! An app that belongs to everyone. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll create something special.
Thank you,
Anthony Flarisee,
Founder, Crossworlds