The European social platforms designed to get you off the screen and into the world
At Rebuild1, many platforms presented their ambitions of building social platforms to help you get away from the screen. A stark contrast to addictive design and doomscrolling, the new generation are actively working to get you outside and socialising with other people.
One such example is The Topo (formerly 27 Crags), a platform designed to make getting outdoors and climbing easier and safer for the rock climbing community. It does this by giving the community a space to share their knowledge of climbing routes.
Nexus Politics is another. The platform is an operating system for digital democracy that provides a direct link between citizens and their representatives, giving anyone the ability to have an impact on real-world problems.
And then there is Meetball, which co-founder Stuart Cerne describes as an "open startup" – anyone can join in and help – that gives event-goers a platform to connect with fellow attendees. It started at Web Summit, Cerne explains. He posted about not being able to meet anyone at the infamously crowded tech conference – asking if anyone wanted to build a solution with him.
Within 24 hours, Cerne and his fellow builders had a product: WebSummeet, which eventually got them into a little trouble with the festival organisers. Now Meetball has an "I can help" reaction function built in, making the transition from online interaction to offline even quicker.
Bridging grassroots, sports, and community, Prematch is another platform rooted emphasising what goes on away from the screen. It gives football players a space to store and share memories and, most importantly, it adds a digital identity and tracking to a player's real-life progression.
According to co-founder Nicklas Brackmann, the platform, which is now being used in every locker room in Germany, allows players to track their performances and development via the app, and it also lets players see pro-level stats such as their estimated market value. As Brackmann said on stage at Rebuild1: "We want to make every player feel like a pro."
Finding the balance between online and offline is easier for some people than others. In fact, according to Lili Vogelsang, founder of Fredie, a platform that helps you build friendship skills, there are many Zoomers who struggle with loneliness and forming connections with other people.
“Social skills are the human USP”
Lili Vogelsang
At first, when she heard the statistics (57% Gen Z loneliness rate in the EU, 73% in the US), her first thought was: "What's wrong with them? There are so many ways to find friends these days, why aren't they doing it?" But then she discovered it wasn't about a lack of opportunity – young people were scared of using the options out there because their social fluency was so lacking.
"If you're like me, you really want to do something about this," Vogelsang said on stage. She'd struggled with loneliness herself, and shared a "fun fact": that when you're lonely, you're more likely to see negative signals. "Social skills are the human USP," she continued, and something to treasure in the age of AI. Fredie is designed as a training platform to keep a person's social skills up to scratch – or help develop them in the first place.