Connection, Culture, and AI: Building a More Human Digital Future
I’ve been lucky enough to travel—I walked the streets of Argentina, felt the energy of Colombia, saw the resilience in Cape Town, and took in the quiet beauty of New Zealand. And everywhere I’ve gone—Canada, Mexico, the U.S.—one thing stays the same: people want to connect.
They want to keep traditions alive, pass on stories, and ensure their history doesn’t disappear.
In the U.S., though, connection feels... trickier. We’re made up of so many cultures that assimilation creeps in. It’s easy to lose touch with where you come from when you’re constantly trying to survive where you are.
When I think back to places like Colombia, where family is at the core of everything, or Cape Town, where people are still actively fighting for equality, or Argentina, where fútbol and family shape identity, I’m reminded that the desire to preserve culture is universal.
That’s why I’m building KINNECT.
A Space for Cultural and Personal Legacy
This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about survival.
Our histories, languages, rituals, and physical traits carry stories. The shape of our noses, the texture of our hair, and the way we speak all come from someone before us.
The tools we have to document our lives weren’t built for this storytelling.
We live in a world where AI is trying to summarize us—scraping LinkedIn, Instagram, Reddit, whatever—and stitching together a neat, marketable, and incomplete version of us. But that’s not us. That’s data.
Future generations aren’t going to remember us through bios or timelines. They’re going to remember us through the words we leave behind, the memories we record, and the emotions we share.
That’s what KINNECT is—a private, invite-only space where you can document your story and share it with the people who matter. Where your culture, identity, and history don’t get erased. They get centered.
For Those Who Need It Most
As a gay Latino man, I think a lot about what it means to need privacy. To need safety. To need a space where you can show up without having to explain yourself or defend who you are.
Public platforms often fail us. The way we speak, write, accents, and expressions are policed, mocked, silenced.
For some communities—like our trans siblings—the need for private, secure, supportive storytelling isn’t just important. It’s urgent. Their lives are personal, powerful, and constantly under threat. Being able to document who they are on their terms matters.
KINNECT isn’t just about memories. It’s about protection. It’s about creating space for people to be real without needing permission.
The Future of Connection
Let’s be honest: most platforms today aren’t built to connect us. They’re built to monetize us. Engagement, ads, algorithms—it’s all a business model.
KINNECT is different.
We exist to help people feel, remember, and stay connected across generations, identities, and communities—chosen or biological.
Real connection happens when people feel safe sharing who they are, when privacy is respected, culture is preserved, and identity isn’t just tolerated—it’s honored.
Reinventing Social Technology
We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that social media and social commerce must go hand in hand. A company can't be successful if it doesn’t sell ads, but I disagree.
We are lonelier than ever because platforms profit off our division. White nationalist narratives push us to fight each other, to question globalization, and to see connection as a threat instead of a human need. Meanwhile, we are consuming the same media, traveling more than ever, meeting friends across borders, and proving—every day—that connection is what truly matters.
Yet social platforms aren’t prioritizing emotional wellness. They aren’t asking how technology can help us nurture existing relationships instead of just making new ones. We need to stop seeing AI as a way to replace human relationships and start using it to enhance the ones we already have.
I saw this firsthand at Folx Health, a company built on the understanding that identity is personal, that storytelling matters, and that privacy and dignity should never be optional. The same ethos drives KINNECT.
A New Model for Digital Belonging
We need to stop accepting that social technology is the only way we can connect and stop prioritizing ads over relationships. If your best friend is struggling, that should matter more than an algorithm pushing you to another fitness plan.
KINNECT is about rethinking what connection means in a digital world. It’s about using technology to bring people together, not isolate them. It’s about ensuring first-generation families, immigrants, and anyone who has ever felt out of place can find a space where they belong.
One in three people in the world today feels lonely. That shouldn’t be our reality.
Connection isn’t about where we are. It’s about who we are—and who we choose to remember.
