Hinge is Spending 1 Million in Campaign to Combat Loneliness
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, January 01 2024 @ 10:23 am
Last modified on Monday, January 01 2024 @ 10:30 am
Hinge is launching a million-dollar social impact fund called One More Hour to help encourage people to meet in real life in response to the loneliness epidemic. The fund will offer $10,000 to $25,000 grants to 501(c)3 groups in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York to develop “fresh, free/low-cost and recurring in-person connection opportunities” for young adults, according to Fast Company.
The idea is to get people engaging more with each other in real life and not just online. The program is intended to fund events that will be organized and ongoing, so that people will feel more encouraged to show up and see what happens.
Hinge’s social impact director Josh Penny told Fast Company[*1] that social clubs stand out as a way to combat the loneliness epidemic because of “their welcoming, low-pressure nature.” He adds that telling people to hang out in person doesn’t necessarily work, that you need to offer the structure and support to encourage people to do it.
Hinge is working with DoSomething Strategic and the Foundation for Social Connection, two social impact non-profits, to develop benchmarks for the program and identify organizations to work with. A group of Gen Z judges will select the final recipients of the grants, according to the press release.
Loneliness is plaguing Gen Z more than any other demographic. The U.S. Surgeon General said in a report earlier this year that loneliness puts people at greater health risk, making them more susceptible to “cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death.”
According to the company’s press release[*2] , compared to twenty years ago, today’s young adult has 1,000 fewer hours of in-person connection time per year. This is “especially due to a lack of accessible third-party spaces.”
The Surgeon General highlighted the obvious change – the rise in social media – as a factor in the growing number of people experiencing loneliness. He says that while social media can foster connection with friends and family, he adds: “technology that displaces in-person engagement, monopolizes our attention, reduces the quality of our interactions, and even diminishes our self-esteem.”
Penny told Fast Company that improving social support for individuals on the app help them with their experience on dating apps. He says that having these outside social supports allows people to “get their needs met in different ways,” according to Fast Company.
Applications will be open from January 8th through the 30th, and recipients will be announced in April. For more on this dating service, read our Hinge review.