Tech Is Fueling A Loneliness Epidemic. Can It Reignite Friendship?
August 23, 2026
When Alyx Van der Vorm, founder of the friendship app Clyx, was studying neuroscience at Harvard University, the U.K. native found there was a “planning tax” if she wanted to go out on a Friday with friends.
“I’d need to figure out who was on campus and text five people to see if they wanted to do something,” she explains. “I knew the next request from them would be, ‘Sure, what do you want to do?’ I would then have to go and research things happening in Boston. Is there a film on tonight? Is there a DJ at a bar?”
