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There have been countless studies about the damaging effects of social media on mental health, particularly on teens.

And yet, most of us just cant quit social networking. Even if it makes us feel bad about ourselves.

The constant comparisons of our lives to the highlight reels that people post on Facebook and Instagram is ridiculously lopsided since the majority of those platforms users dont post unflattering photos of themselves, or share their sad or bad news with others.

Enter Inpathy, a new kind of social network a healthy one. Ziarekenya Smith founded the company in 2015 with a mission to revolutionize how people use social media by making it more transparent, normalizing moods, and recreating the human experience. The end goal is to bring more wellness to the social network world.

Smith started his career in digital art and design. Despite early success, he didnt feel the work was as personally fulfilling as hed hoped. He began to feel symptoms of anxiety and depression and found himself wanting to express those feelings on social media. But he stopped himself.

The unwritten rules of social are that if life isnt perfect, you dont talk about it, Smith recalls. So I kept my feelings to myself. But I asked myself why was that the case?

The concept for Detroit-based Inpathy was born from the pain and struggle he felt. It was also born out of Smiths belief that the current social media structure is not sustainable in the long term.

Its great for making money but not great for true human well-being, Smith told TechCrunch. In my eyes, we have to fix the core.

Inpathy strives to offer a more balanced life experience, not just perfection. It aims to give people room to share their raw feelings, the good, not so good and the bad.

Everyones going to have ups and downs, and you can appreciate someones rise more if you see the timeline of their up and down, Smith says. We all love the underdog story.

In a twist, Inpathys users share their stories or content not through pictures or the written word, but via audio or video, providing what Smith hopes is an immersive experience.

Inpathy will ask a user how they are feeling and that mood scale is visible to other users, who can even filter by mood, including angry, sad and happy.

We want to normalize emotion and create a transparent system, Smith said. It has to be transparent for us all to be on the same playing field. So people can realize, Its not just me. This is normal.

There are no follow or add buttons. Inpathy allows for two-way communication leading to users becoming friends.

Were not robots. Whether you are rich or poor, you feel happiness and pain no matter your status, Smith said. This is what human is. Inpathy is showing people its ok to be human.

The site has a low tolerance for trolls and bullies, banning them for life. The thought of someone building up the courage to share something on Inpathy and then get trolled to the point they are scared to open up again prompted the policy.

Image Credits: Inpathy

For now, Smith is raising money through crowdfunding and essentially bootstrapping until he finds the right investor.

We dont want to be in the position of feeling like we have to add features just to impress investors, he said. Vision is very important.

Right now if we look at the social media landscape, we use YouTube for TV, TikTok for shorts, Instagram for photos, Twitter for news and trends, Facebook for entertainment, LinkedIn for business, Headspace for meditation, Tinder for dating, Smith adds. But where do you go for the raw experience, and to just be yourself?

Hopefully Inpathy, if Smith has his way.

More here:
Inpathy aims to be a social network that mirrors real human experience - TechCrunch