| Hey everyone, it's Kurt. I wrote about the video chat app Houseparty this week, which is booming right now due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The app has been ranked No. 1 in the "social networking" category in the U.S. App Store for the past 26 days—higher than Facebook, Messenger or WhatsApp. So I was surprised when Houseparty Chief Executive Officer Sima Sistani held up her phone during an interview to show me a sticker on the back that read: "Social media seriously harms your mental health." Houseparty, Sistani says, isn't social media; it's a social network. The distinction between the two is often easy to ignore or gloss over. To Sistani, social networks are built around human connection—often times instantaneously. Think private messaging or video chat. Houseparty's chat program allows people to add a slew of features onto video calls, like games and trivia. Social media, by contrast, is a more asynchronous form of communication. It lends itself to virality, and polished content. And it's convenient, particularly when people who want to connect are stymied by tight schedules and divergent time zones. "People started shifting to asynchronous news feeds where you can like or you can comment on your own time or on your own schedule," she said. "But those experiences don't fill you up in the same way." Right now, old fashioned social networking seems to be enjoying a resurgence. That's evidenced by the meteoric rise of Zoom Video Communications Inc. and the new interest in Slack Technologies Inc., as well as the surge in conference calls, even in off-hours. But there were signs that social networks were ascendant even before Covid-19. Over the past 18 months or so, Facebook Inc. itself—which basically created social media—has pushed deeper into products that encourage more intimate interactions, like Groups, Messenger and video chat. Facebook launched a video chat device called Portal; Instagram released a messaging app just for your close friends; and the entire company has prioritized private, encrypted messaging. Here's what Zuckerberg said in March 2019 when announcing this new priority related to messaging: "Today we already see that private messaging, ephemeral stories, and small groups are by far the fastest growing areas of online communication," he wrote. "There are a number of reasons for this. Many people prefer the intimacy of communicating one-on-one or with just a few friends." Now, as we're all more physically distant than ever, that strategy seems to be working. Facebook says engagement is through the roof, and that the products getting the biggest boosts are private messaging, live video and voice calls. As people change the way they communicate online, and in many cases, shift to communicating only online, there's a chance we're getting more adept at using those tools. (Already there's no more FOMO on Instagram.) "I think everyone is trying to find silver linings in what's happening right now," Sistani said. "Maybe the silver lining is that people are finding this new, better way to connect with each other." The result might just wind up being better for our mental health. —Kurt Wagner | 
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