“Inpathy is reinventing social media with empathy that inspires transparency, normalizes moods, and recreates the human experience.”
Ziarekenya Smith, the Founder of Inpathy, and Kathryn Young, the COO at Inpathy, are reimagining social media by introducing real human elements that bring people together emotionally to recreate the human experience. Inpathy’s goal is to show people it’s okay to be human and have a healthy relationship with all emotions online and offline.
Ziarekenya recognized the problem seven years ago when he fell on some hard times, experiencing depression, anxiety, and self-doubt. He wanted to express this online, but he stopped himself because the unwritten rules on social media are “If It’s Not Perfect or Fun. Don’t Post It!” Ziarekenya then asked himself why this was the case.
His belief is, “Life is a series of peaks and valleys. That’s what makes us human.” said Ziarekenya Smith. “I knew sharing only your highlight reels of your made shots and not your missed shots aren’t sustainable long-term for human well-being,” Ziarekenya continued.
Kathryn’s background as a Mental Health Professional confirms Ziarekenya’s belief, using studies that show the increasingly adverse effects of social media on youth’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being - causing feelings of depression, anxiety, and isolation.
“We are the most connected generation in history, but the most disconnected emotionally,” said Kathryn Young.
That realization led to Inpathy! Ziarekenya and Kathryn knew social media needed to change. So Team Inpathy aimed to reinvent social media with empathy, go back to the basics, explore the ideas that make us human, and foster genuine connections.
They built their focus around three core human principles. Why? Because “If you take away money, status, and accolades, all you have left is your emotions, stories, and community. That’s Inpathy’s focus,” said Ziarekenya Smith.
Team Inpathy supports using this framework by following a human-centered design, functionality, and algorithm. So on Inpathy, there are no likes, views, or followers. Instead, we inspire transparency where users can see how everyone is feeling, and we amplify expressing yourself freely via video and audio within our open and inclusive community!
Inpathy’s human-centered design will work to stop people from obsessively comparing their everyday life with everyone else's carefully curated versions of their lives. Kathryn identifies this comparison problem as a “Socially Transmitted Disease” - an illness we all currently suffer from when using social media.
Inpathy also makes the experience of connecting with friends online more human because we’re “old school.” No following people at the simple click of a button - you have to communicate with one another to make friends, just like in real life!
“We show people it’s okay to be okay, and it’s okay not to be okay,” said Ziarekenya Smith. “We don’t see social media as it is. We see it for what it could be - where the good and bad are accepted online and offline because that’s the human experience.” Ziarekenya continued.
Team Inpathy wants you to return to being human and undo, unfollow, and unlearn everything social media has taught you. The unwritten rules of social media change now with Inpathy reinventing social media with empathy, inspiring transparency, normalizing moods, and recreating the human experience.
You can support our mission by joining our waitlist that will help our crowdfunding campaign to finish Inpathy! Inpathy will be invite-only at launch until we have a Healthy, Thriving, and “Inpathetic” community.
For more information about Inpathy, the fundraiser, and how to support it - please click the link to visit Inpathy Crowdfunding.
Visit their website, instagram, twitter, facebook and youtube to learn more.
