Would you pay for an algorithm to pick your friends? New social apps spread across cities
With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet? Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always
Open original article- Ledger record
- #2938
- First seen
- 26 Aug 2026, 06:13 UTC
- Last checked
- 27 Aug 2026, 19:57 UTC
- Version history
- 1 version
- Current fingerprint
43f6ecbf9edb...c3d5e4
Publisher layer
Recorded article metadata
- Publisher
- The Guardian
- Country
- England / United Kingdom
- Source published
- 26 Aug 2026, 06:00 UTC
- Source updated
- No update timestamp supplied
- Byline
- Kimi Chaddah
- Section
- Friendship
With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet? Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always
Change layer
Observed version timeline
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1
Would you pay for an algorithm to pick your friends? New social apps spread across cities
With many adults admitting they feel lonely, meetup platforms offer the chance to make new connections Would you pay £20 a month for the chance of making a friend, on the understanding that an algorithm – not you – gets to decide who you’ll meet? Driven by the decline of “third spaces” such as youth centres and pubs, an increase in remote working and rising loneliness – 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely “always
Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags- Version SHA-256
43f6ecbf9edb...c3d5e4- Capture SHA-256
e660cc6ef369...e9698a
Interpretation layer
Labels with declared origins
Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.
- machine content-type Reported news observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
- publisher category Consumer affairs rss-category
- publisher category Friendship rss-category
- publisher category Life and style rss-category
- publisher category Money rss-category
- publisher category Social media rss-category
- publisher category Technology rss-category
- publisher category Technology sector rss-category
- publisher category UK news rss-category
Public response layer
Reception snapshots
Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.
Evidence layer
Capture provenance
- Capture ID
- #2652
- Observed
- 26 Aug 2026, 06:13 UTC
- HTTP result
- 200 / parsed
- Raw payload
- 474,586 bytes, private gzip evidence
- Collector
- news-ledger/0.1
- Public boundary
- metadata and excerpt