Loneliness is shaping small products and the comments around them
A thread on Americans' steeply declining social activity over 30 years split between 'more places to meet, so it's just different' and 'no common culture anymore'. Commenters blame smartphones and social media. 'Together we are alone' sums up the mood. Around it sit small projects: Catch a Bird, built by Eduard in Budapest for his own sanity, Petal as an open-source ScreenHero-style pair-working tool, and the story of rural Argentines sending personal messages over AM radio.
The pattern here is people building or celebrating thin, low-pressure ways to connect. Radio, shared screens, and a game about noticing small good things all work as presence rather than feed. Several holiday posts in the archive repeat the same note, with people saying HN itself is one of the few communities they have.
The counterpoint on Petal is blunt: someone loved ScreenHero, but this is 'probably 10 years too late'. Timing matters even for good ideas.
So what?
There is demand for small, calm, synchronous social products that don't copy the feed. They are hard to monetize, so founders should either keep costs near zero or sell the same presence mechanic to teams.
Read these
Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years
Catch a Bird – I made it for my own sanity
The First Social Network: In rural Argentina residents send messages w AM radio
Show HN: Petal, open-source CoScreen/ScreenHero finally free