DO WE NEED ANOTHER SOCIAL APP?

5. SOCIAL NETWORKS REMAIN VIRTUAL

We live in the post-social world. Besides the 600 address book contacts we have, the average person has 400 Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections each. But how many of these people do we actually connect with, really, in an average month?

4. PERSONAL ASSISTANT FOR YOUR SOCIAL LIFE

We also live in an on-demand world - some call it the Uberization of everything. Whenever you want, an Uber driver picks you up. Rocketuncle helps deliver goods for you. And now, Redmart gives you groceries on demand. Why is there an on-demand tool for everything, but not the thing that means most to you: your personal life?

3. WE LIVE IN AN INCREASINGLY FRAGMENTED WORLD

Technology has enabled us to live separately in a globalised world.

We travel and fall in love, starting romances in places away from home. We fall in love, start a family, and then have to move away for work. We are increasingly single - divorces continue to rise and we get married later. Freelancing and working from cafes has also increasingly become a norm.

In a world that is becoming increasingly atomized, our social lives have also become more dispersed. No longer can we look to the local village for our social life. For entrepreneurs like us, we no longer have the benefit - and perhaps annoyance - of interacting with our extended corporate family. And as expatriates, our extended families are far away from us.

In a fragmented world, we run the risk of being just that – cut off from networks and not being surrounded by those closest to us, even while we have the technology to do so.

2. ENGINEERING SERENDIPITY

We live in a post-social world where the use of location-based services is more widespread than before. Back in 2009, when Foursquare brought us the idea of check-ins, users reacted with great enthusiasm. Now I can tell the whole world cool places I've been - hurray! In the past year, Facebook has pushed out Nearby Friends - a feature that allows you to see who else is nearby. And yet, we don't actually encounter our friends more often in person, even with such tools available to us.

For four years, I worked in one of the largest top-tier office buildings in Beijing, China. As it is with every tribe, all the brand name financial services firms opened offices in the same building. But for four years, it was a pain to find someone else for lunch in the same building even though we were all in the same industry, and presumably could benefit from doing more business with each other.

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With social networks mapped out, and location based services a given, serendipity can be better engineered today.​

1. NOBODY LIKES TO EAT ALONE

As much as we need our down time, nobody really likes to eat alone. That's why we have lunch buddies at work or look for supper kakis on campus. Once, when I told the maître d' of a casual restaurant that I was looking for a table of one, his expression was one of enormous surprise – and empathy. (These days I just say I’m looking for a table of two – and then later share, if they even notice, that my dining partner is late.)

Of course, we're not saying that being alone doesn't work. In fact, as my social life has become more active through SUP, I've often chosen to take date nights with myself. Even when travelling, the quiet moments walking through a large and crowded city can be the most poignant.

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But the point is, you don't have to be alone, when you don't want to. No longer does being alone have to be the worse option. You can take control of your social life when you want to. And that is the premise behind SUP.

SUP IS YOUR CALL OPTION

An app isn't going to change your life if you haven't decided to. But if you want to make your social life better, consider downloading SUP and inviting your friends onto it today.​

About the writer: Wei Qing is the co-founder of SUP the app. She has lived and worked in Beijing, New York and now Singapore. She enjoys eating good food and meeting new people.