In the fall of 2021, Saint Louis University students Michael Orosz-Fagen and Stuart Ray developed a social networking application called Mesh. They were inspired by seeing many classmates often eating alone and struggling to find company.
Mesh is a user-friendly application designed to broadcast when students go to the dining hall, allowing others to join them. Mesh is intended to foster community and reduce awkward encounters in the dining hall. The application has been well received, and many SLU students find interactions easier.
Mesh goes beyond meal times. The creators plan to extend features to event planning and academic collaboration. The end goal is for the app to be used by SLU students and students from other universities to enhance social interaction.
Mesh also initiates casual meetups, especially among individuals aged 20-35. The app uses an innovative matching algorithm that considers users’ age and specific preferences to facilitate suitable matches.
Mesh: Encouraging social interactions among students
One of its highlights is organizing Saturday meetups at local cafes.
The app experienced fast adoption after being launched in Madison in April 2021. It quickly gained more than 800 users and facilitated over 200 meetups at six different cafes in just two months. This quick uptake demonstrated the app’s potential to effectively meet users’ social needs.
Mesh was born partly due to the social isolation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift from social college life to more isolated adult life during lockdown created a demand for social engagement platforms like Mesh. As people found themselves more isolated during lockdown, the need for socialization grew, thus platforms like Mesh that enhance social interactions, became more important.
Registration for Mesh is simple, — only requiring users to provide their age and answer a few personality questions to help with compatibility matches. The user-friendly interface includes privacy control and preferences settings, allowing users to customize their experience and the app prioritizes user safety with features like blocking and reporting.
The primary goal of Mesh is to simplify the process of making friends post-college and facilitate strong bonds in a relaxed environment. Its creators believe it can help young adults develop new local connections and relationships.
