Impossible a new “altruistic social networking” site backed by Lily Cole is set to put social back into social media. “The average Londoner knows just one neighbour” says model Lily Cole. “I travel a lot and I’m always surprised by the strong sense of community in some countries. We’ve lost something fundamentally human and we don’t even realise it.”
Impossible is essentially a social media site with an emphasis on giving. It has been designed to enable users to connect through helping each other. A user may post something such as “I need a new carpet my dog’s chewed it up” and anyone in the local community can help and offer their services, whether it’s a carpet company for instance or someone with some spare carpet. Impossible creates an economy not based on money but the desire to help someone. It encourages people to gift their services and skills without expecting anything in return. It aims to bring people together through goodwill.
When a user has gifted someone with their service, they get a thank you on the site, which acts as a type of currency in a similar way to a user rating on eBay. Some say that raking up thank you’s isn’t completely altruistic but who’s going to argue if you can get yourself a freebie?
Watch this space to see which companies jump on the bandwagon first.
