What if social networks did what they were meant to do?

You open an app to see what your friends are doing. The screen fills with stories, short videos, and glimpses of daily life. There’s colour, humour, and creativity in every swipe. It’s familiar and easy, part of the way we move through our days now. And yet, sometimes, after scrolling for a while, a quiet thought appears, how are my friends actually doing?

It’s a simple question, but it lingers. Over the years, the internet has become the place where most of our lives meet, where we share ideas, build work, find communities, and stay connected across time zones. It has given us scale, reach, and access that once felt impossible. Each new tool adds its own form of connection: messages, stories, short clips, and spaces that bring people together in different ways.

Lately, a new pattern has started to emerge. More people are looking for smaller, calmer ways to stay in touch. Group chats, close-friend lists, private updates, little pockets of connection that feel easier, lighter, and closer to real life. The meaning of being “social” is expanding again, slowly taking a shape that feels more personal and present.

One of our founder friends, Mitesh Shethwala, is building something along these lines. His product, Currently, describes itself as “a place to know what your friends are doing.” It isn’t designed for reach or performance. It’s built around awareness, the quiet comfort of being part of each other’s everyday moments, without needing to say too much. It’s the kind of idea that feels small at first, but it touches something most of us understand immediately.

Across the world, similar ideas are emerging. Some builders are creating tools for closer communities. Others are designing products that make it easier to stay in touch in small ways. Together, they form a quiet but clear pattern, a new wave of social products that see technology not as a stage, but as a space to stay present in each other’s lives.

People are slowly finding new ways to stay in touch. A short message instead of a long post. A photo shared with a few friends. A small update that says, I’m here. These moments feel light, but they hold what social networks were always built for, a sense of closeness that fits into everyday life.

The next wave of products seems to be moving in that direction, simple spaces that help people stay connected without trying too hard. Apps that blend into our days instead of asking for them. Tools that make it easy to reach out, not perform.

Maybe this is what social networks were meant to do all along, to help us notice each other, to make distance feel a little smaller, and to remind us that connection was never about being seen by many, but being remembered by a few.