Neighborhood, Not Metaverse: New Venn Study Reveals People Prefer Real-World Connections

Just as the world is getting a glimpse of post-pandemic life, the world’s largest social network is going all-in on the metaverse, an immersive virtual and augmented world that has the potential to exacerbate feelings of isolation and loneliness. So the team behind Venn, the world’s only platform and experience company focused exclusively on neighborhoods, wanted to know: do people want to keep living in virtual realities or are they looking for something else? Something real? To find out, Venn surveyed more than 500 people in Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. Today, Venn is publishing those survey findings; the complete study is available to download on the Venn website here.

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Revelations from Venn’s study include:

• Social networks aren’t delivering on their promises. Forty-three percent of survey respondents wish they were more connected to their neighbors, but 44 percent report having stronger connections with people on social media than with people in their neighborhoods, indicating that those online connections don’t translate to the real world.
• People need help connecting in the real world. Sixty-three percent of respondents agree that it is important to live in a neighborhood where they feel like they belong, and half reported that they want to be active members of their neighborhoods. However, two-thirds said they rarely spend time with their neighbors, participate in local events, or give back to their neighborhoods.
• The good news is that people want to change. Forty-five percent of survey respondents said that they would be more likely to choose to live in a building that offers services that help them to feel more connected to their neighborhoods over one that doesn’t. Two out of five respondents said that they would even be willing to pay for those services.

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“If social media is making all of us miserable, then perhaps it’s time to pause and think about what we really want,” says Chen Avni, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Venn. “How can we connect people without making the same mistakes that social media has made for the past 25 years? How can we build connected communities where everyone — residents, small businesses, and property owners — all feel like they belong? The answer is right in front of us. We need to focus on reimagining the original social network: the neighborhood.”

A new sector of companies is emerging to tackle this challenge head-on. Some are dedicated to solving the economic issue, building stronger relationships between property owners and local businesses. Others are helping people to establish relationships with their neighbors. Venn’s model is the only one taking a whole-of-neighborhood approach. It connects the economic interests of property owners and small businesses to renters’ desired sense of belonging. The result? Stronger local economies; more active communities; and happier, healthier neighbors — all things virtual networks claim, but only real-world communities can deliver.

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