With everything that’s happened in the past few years and the increasingly central role that social media has played in it all, it’s hard not to feel as if an urgent change is needed, both in how these platforms work and how we use them. From the spread of misinformation to trolling and toxic online behaviour, we’ve all noticed the negative way social media has affected our interactions.
That’s why, while studying physics and philosophy at the University of Oxford (and later, UCL), 19-year-old student Alejandra de Brunner founded the ETHOS Network in 2020. With an emphasis on positive interaction and social change above all, ETHOS is specifically geared towards Gen Z and the issues they value most, whether that’s mental well-being, women’s rights, climate change, or education.
Rather than building a reward system based on controversy, ETHOS puts the focus on collaboration and learning, rewarding users for adding value to discussions and helping them to connect with other users who care about the same issues.
And instead of building profiles and online personas around a cultivated image, profiles on ETHOS are built on the particular issue that each user cares about most. From there, the app helps them connect with educational and solution-oriented content about these topics, as well as other people and groups who care.
A test version of the app was launched in 2020 and now, after some recalibration, the finished version is available in the App Store. It’s been an almost vertical incline for de Brunner and her team over the past two years, but they’ve still got a lot of big plans in the works. ETHOS has gathered the support of leading investors and advisors in the industry and is set to reach 35M members of its target Gen Z demographic in 2023.
Head to The ETHOS Network to find out more or download ETHOS from the App Store.
