Deficits of trust, empathy, and a sense of common purpose are defining characteristics of the current moment in America. But while algorithmic feeds, AI-generated content, and fragmented digital media environments can foment division and deepen social isolation, the same underlying tech and infrastructure also holds immense promise to broker dialogue, trust, and positive human relationships.

On September 16, NationSwell hosted part two of a two-part MainStage series on Restoring Social Connection in America, where a panel of leading experts and practitioners explored the essential role companies, media leaders, and institutions must play in shaping a less divisive information ecosystem and a healthier digital world for us to inhabit.

Our featured panelists included Baratunde Thurston, writer, host, and producer of Life With Machines; Jillian Racoosin Kornmeier, Executive Director, The Foundation For Social Connection; Jackie Jantos, CEO of Hinge; and Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer of Workday Foundation.

The conversation offered a hopeful reminder that, despite the widening deltas between us, there are still meaningful opportunities for leaders and institutions to step in and reshape the way technology impacts human connection. Some of the key insights from the discussion appear below.

Watch the event in full:

Takeaways:

  • Companies can be successful when they design and invest in products that result in real-world connection, rather than additional screentime. Some businesses are building products that measure success by whether people move offline into real relationships – capping how long conversations stay in-app, facilitating meetups around shared interests, or helping people stay connected after events end. Philanthropy and business have great opportunities to resource these pro-social technologies in a moment when many emerging tools and platforms encourage isolation over connection.  
  • In the workplace, prioritize human interaction for high-stakes conversations, even when it feels more difficult. Performance feedback, conflict, and career development conversations are increasingly moving online or into conversations with AI, quietly eroding trust in the workplace. Employees are defaulting to back-and-forth emails and managers are leaning on AI-drafted messages to deliver feedback rather than direct conversations. Reserving these moments for face-to-face interaction – in person or video – can build trust between colleagues and managers, even as AI takes on more of the day-to-day work. 
  • Track workplace connection and trust with the same rigor as productivity. Workplace research shows AI is boosting worker confidence and efficiency, but also replacing peer brainstorming and feedback. Younger workers report the sharpest effects, with notable numbers sharing they feel lonely at work. Measuring indicators – like trust, belonging, and social resilience – alongside output metrics can surface these risks early and lay the groundwork for more positive human connection in the workplace. 
  • Build deliberate friction back into relationships that technology or AI may smooth away. AI companions increasingly remove friction – like disagreement, discomfort, and asking for help – that give human relationships value and help people grow. Workplaces optimized purely for AI efficiency can perform well in the short term, but risk becoming relationally fragile in crises or hard conversations. Designing products or moments that restore this friction helps people build self-awareness and teams practice resilience they may need to navigate critical difficult moments.
  • Invest in social infrastructure. A lack of third spaces contributes to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Some organizations are responding by building new social infrastructure – transforming underused transit land into public soccer fields and hosting buildathons where neighbors create place-based tools that strengthen local connection. Investing in existing third spaces, like public libraries, is equally as valuable. 
  • Advance policy that evaluates technology’s effect on connection. Meaningful reform can include annual transparency reporting and evaluating tools based on whether technologies facilitate connection or deepen isolation. Federal policy advocates and national coalitions have pushed for related legislation, and states and cities continue to move quickly to prioritize this work. “Small-p” policy – everyday choices that individuals, families, and workplaces make about technology – also carries significant weight. 

Key Quotes:

“Philanthropy, venture capital, enterprise tech should support and shape the market for pro-social technology together with entrepreneurs to ensure that as AI systems grow more powerful, our human relationships can flourish as well.”
— Carrie Varoquiers, Chief Impact Officer, Workday 

“There are a lot of ways that we could approach technology, but I think our bigger opportunity is to change how we approach ourselves… We’ve got to just take a breath, you know, slow it down… We are due for some practice at reconnecting in many different ways and there can be a role for technology to do that. I don’t want to come across as saying there’s no path there; I just want to make sure that we’re the ones that are owning it even in how we speak of it. We have to decide that we want this.”
— Baratunde Thurston, Writer, Host, and Producer, Life With Machines

“Individually, we know that chronic isolation and loneliness is bad for our health, our physical health, our mental health, our memory, and it’s bad for us as communities, we are less civically engaged and more disconnected. But on the inverse, we actually know that social connection is protective. It can help us boost our survival and actually as communities make us healthier and more resilient.”

— Jillian Racoosin Kornmeier, MPH, Executive Director, Foundation for Social Connection

“We’re in a pretty seismic moment of technological innovation, and some days it feels like we’re climbing uphill with the frictionless experiences that are keeping a person in a very isolated technological environment when, in actuality, we want people to get off the app and go meet up with someone in person. There is no more powerful way to come into who you are as a person than sitting in front of someone and engaging with them one-on-one.”
— Jackie Jantos, CEO, Hinge

Be sure to also check out our recap of part one of the series, which took place in June: Restoring Purpose in America: Common Purpose through Service.