The Meaning Epidemic
The hidden hunger behind loneliness, and how to design for meaning
In this post:
Why people need meaning
Defining meaning
Why meaning-scarcity is increasing in modern society
The connection between meaning and loneliness
What it takes to address meaning-scarcity
We live in a world of unparalleled convenience and material abundance.
But convenience and abundance cannot meet every human need— particularly the need for meaning.
The decline in meaning underpins our more visible loneliness epidemic.
Why people need meaning (and what meaning is)
A growing body of research identifies meaning as strongly influencing both psychological and physical well-being.
According to Viktor Frankl, author of ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ (one of the most influential books on my thinking), meaning can stem from various pursuits:
Creating works or performing deeds
Experiencing something
Relationships
Adopting attitudes towards inevitable suffering
Meaning, by definition, emerges only through effort, determination, resilience, persistence, and/or relational intimacy.
Meaning is what makes ‘inconvenient’ things worthwhile, and what would leave you feeling empty if the world just gave you everything you asked for.
Why Meaning-Scarcity is so acute in modern society
It’s true that our lives are more convenient than ever. But as some parts of life become easier, there’s less and less meaning to be had meeting those needs.
We live in a more convenient, transactional, technological, and individualistic culture than in any period of humanity. Unfortunately, all 4 of those things are orthogonal to meaning.
CONVENIENCE is the opposite of meaningful: For example, if you had to hunt for your food, you’d feel a sense of meaning and accomplishment when you completed a successful hunt. But if all you need to do is go to the grocery store, you feel no sense of meaning in that engagement. The easier something is, the less meaningful it is.
TRANSACTIONAL purchases can’t provide meaning: You can’t ‘buy’ a sense of purpose. Purpose is intrinsically self-derived; advertising often attempts to connect a purchase to a sense of purpose, but the association of purpose and meaning to purchases (consumerism) is a construct designed to justify transactional dynamics.
INDIVIDUALISM robs us of the opportunity for relational meaning: Raising a family and contributing in relationships is perhaps the single greatest source of meaning in the human story. And yet, as people see themselves more and more as individuals and less and less as parts of a unit, the opportunity for relational meaning plummets.
TECHNOLOGY like AI and automation disconnects effort from meaning. Technology has huge benefits but for the average person decreases access to a sense of meaning. Think about artists or writers whose work can be replicated by AI, or artisans whose trades have been replaced by factories. For most people, the more technology factors into their interactions, the less personal meaning they’re likely to find.
Meanwhile, technologies for distraction, like social media or gaming, focuses on providing short-term pleasures over sustainable meaning generation.
Designing for Meaning
Let’s take as given that the modern world optimizes against meaning. This just means we have a design challenge on our hands. What then does it take to ‘design for meaning’?
Below are a list of tasks and thoughts on moving forward to address meaning-scarcity.
Quantifying the social impact of ‘meaninglessness’ on society (youth violence, depression, etc.)
Identifying target cohorts of ‘meaning-starved’ people
Developing ways to provide ‘meaning-starved’ people access to opportunities to create meaning in their own lives as a primary intervention
Developing business metrics to track the impact and efficacy of meaning-focused efforts
Increasing awareness of the importance of meaning (public literacy)
Identifying strategies and cultivating business cultures around ‘access to meaning’ as a bottom line
Identifying situations in service design where convenience is counterproductive
Developing tools to help people develop an assessment of their own desires for meaning
Efforts to shift culture and create awareness around counterproductive values, like hyperindividuality
Faith and cultural institutions pursuing programming focused on supporting meaning
Startups and businesses focused on creating self-sustaining standalone social networks for meaningful belonging
… and much much more.