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Started 22 November 2024

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The Meaning of Life and Technology: The Challenges of Gen Z

McKinsey insight: Young people aged 18-24 face three times more difficulty finding meaning in life than older generations.

Why is this happening?

The world is changing at an alarming rate, and the human brain is struggling to keep up with the constant flow of information and rapid shifts.

🟡 Social media exacerbates loneliness, it creates the illusion of connection but weakens real intimacy.

🟡 Economic instability: Inflation, rising housing costs, and market volatility make young people feel vulnerable.

🟡 The rapid development of artificial intelligence: on the one hand, it brings new opportunities, and on the other hand, it triggers the fear of losing control and work.

🟡 The transience of life: Change seems too sudden, and cultural values often seem outdated.

These factors lead to anxiety and a sense of meaninglessness.

Artificial Intelligence

Psychology

Marcin Piotr Walkowiak

Poznan University of Medical Sciences

So we used to have some religions which were stating that our life has eternal meaning, recently we have abandoned them and right now we're wondering why new generation thinks that the life is lacking meaning?

Or maybe combination of consumerism and woke culture does not bring meaning to life? (in some studies when worldview was included, the most affected were people buying into those new cultural trends)

The other factors that you mentioned (economic, artificial social environment) would be an important factor to take into account if the analysed outcome variable was declared happiness or diagnosable mental illness. For such very narrow outcome metric I'd say that meaning of my life is not affected so far by a chatbot proofreading my grammar any more than it was affected by spellcheck.

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2 Recommendations

Nidhal Kamel Taha El-Omari

The World Islamic Science and Education University (WISE)

Asaad Sh. M. Alhesnawi

University of Karbala

Parisa Ziarati

Formerly Academic member in Pharmaceutical Faculty & honorary researcher in

Barbara Sawicka

University of Life Sciences in Lublin

Francisco Javier Gala

Universidad de Cádiz

What can help?

Despite these challenges, there are some ways to do it that really work:

🟡 Strong personal relationships: Spend time with friends and communicate in real life rather than through social media.

🟡 Helping others: Engage in projects that bring real benefits to others.

🟡 Clarity of values: Understanding one's own aspirations and goals, knowing oneself and its potential, helps shape a meaningful life.

Only we can make life meaningful—our lives, our responsibilities, our meanings.

The role of technology

Technology is a tool. It can be used both for distraction and for creating meaning.

For example, cryptocurrencies allow participation in the construction of a new economy, cultivating a sense of responsibility and a deep understanding of risks.

The future of the younger generation

As the global economy remains volatile and the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, finding meaning in life becomes a real challenge.

Perhaps the answer lies not in technology, but in a return to basic human values:

Communication, support, focus, and creating something 🤝 that lasts

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S. Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist

Stockholm University

Evening prayers can be very meaningful for children and hold significant importance in various aspects of their development and give them a deep meaning to lean on later on.

Routine and Structure: Establishing a regular evening prayer can create a comforting routine that helps children wind down and prepare for sleep.
Emotional Development: Praying can provide a space for children to express their feelings, fears, and gratitude, fostering emotional intelligence and resilience.
Spiritual Growth: Evening prayers can nurture a child’s spiritual development, helping them connect with their faith and understand the values and teachings of their religion.
Sense of Security: Praying before bed can offer children a sense of security and peace, knowing they are protected and cared for.
Family Bonding: Engaging in prayer as a family can strengthen familial bonds and create a sense of togetherness and shared values.
Moral Guidance: Prayers often include reflections on the day, teaching children to think about their actions and intentions, promoting moral and ethical growth.
Gratitude and Mindfulness: Evening prayers encourage children to reflect on the positive aspects of their day, fostering a habit of gratitude and mindfulness.
Stress Relief: The act of praying can be calming and help reduce anxiety, especially before sleep.

Incorporating evening prayers into a child's routine can be a profound way to support their overall well-being and development.

Evening prayer with parents authentic voice, not by any technology-

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1 Recommendation

S. Béatrice Marianne Ewalds-Kvist Thanks for the reply, can we get to know each other? It can be discussed together

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2 Recommendations

Marcin Piotr Walkowiak

Poznan University of Medical Sciences

Or maybe combination of consumerism and woke culture does not bring meaning to life? (in some studies when worldview was included, the most affected were people buying into those new cultural trends)

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Are we witnessing the end of literary criticism and the dawn of the cultural criticism!

Discussion

6 replies

Asked 2 May 2024

Abdul Salaam Al-Moosawi

In the last couple of months, a plethora of protesters were marching arm in arm in a solidarity with the people of Gaza, calling for the end of the inhumane massacre inflicted upon the people there, which shows how human beings are humanely binded together. This, of course, teased some to dehumanise these mass protesters across the streets of the West labelling them, " the Barbarians and their supporters are unfortunately inside the gates " using the exact words of Ben Shapiro who is a Jewish-American conservative talk show host. Now, engendering stereotypes about non- westerns is millennia in the making; it dates back to the twilight of Western thinking and philosophy where people outside the walls of Greece were labelled barbarian. We can find not only an echo and glimpses in the writings of Greek intellectuals, rather there's what is so orientally conspicuous to the eyes in Plato's and Aristotle's oeuvres. In fact, the very meaning of the Word " Barbarian" is used to frame people who do not speak Greek. Needless to say, that the smeary anathema was highly intensified with rise of Islam.

Return back to the coeval days, some of those protesters are calling for the end of the genocide and some are calling for a violent revolution against the colonisers ; something which was theorised by Frantz Fanon in his 1961 treatise "The Wretched of the Earth". This violent revolution will usher in the " new" who is free from the evils of the West. Decolonisation, he says, is always violent phenomenon.

"When the colonised hear a speech on western culture, they draw the machete". At any rate, Frantz Fanon called for a violent revolution outside Europe, but the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre called for a revolution inside the gates of Europe:

"To shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, doing away with oppressor and oppressed at the same time," leaving one man dead and the other is free. He dwells on "You, who are so liberal and so humane, who have such an exaggerated adoration of culture that it verges on affectation, you pretend to forget that you own colonies and that in them men are massacred in your name." Especially, if we to bear in mind that the west is dominant, hegemonic and reached what Francis Fukayama calls " The end of human history".

Nevertheless, what's so pivotally significant about these mass uprisings and the counter- discourse is that with them the people of the West are now keenly aware and acquainted with the full situation in Gaza. Thus, ushering a new era of knowledge production which is articulated by the mouths of non- Westerns: something which is framed in literary criticism as " Post-Orientalism". Under this umbrella, literary frameworks are no longer demarcated to literary texts, but in fact, are geared into other cultural discourses, inaugurating the pulverisation of literary criticism and the rise of the so-called cultural criticism!

Can scientific researchers have any doubt global warming caused these 2023 disasters?

Discussion

31 replies

Asked 31 December 2023

Nancy Ann Watanabe

2023 saw an unprecedented number of disasters:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/12/31/a-year-of-billion-dollar-disasters-and-the-maui-fires-werent-even-the-costliest/?sh=1505065c79fe&utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly&utm_campaign=4007732

"A Year Of Billion-Dollar Disasters—And The Maui Fires Weren’t Even The Costliest"

Forbes Staff cover breaking news:

Dec 31, 2023, 07:00 am EST NOAA

Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters

FORBES HOME 30% Of Americans Cite Climate Change As A Motivator To Move In 2023 MORE FROM FORBES Water Quality Expected To Decline As Extreme Weather Becomes More Common, New Study Says By Mary Whitfill Roeloffs

MORE FROM FORBES Climate Change Worsens Natural Disasters Alongside Racial Inequality By Christian Weller TOPLINE A record-breaking number of natural disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damage cost the United States a total of $81 billion this year, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, including a devastating wildfires in Hawaii, Hurricane Idalia in western Florida and a drought that killed more than 200 people across the South and Midwest. GETTY IMAGES 📷Farmer Chad Hanks walks by dry, cracked earth on his farm

October 10, 2023 in Kaplan, Louisiana.

KEY FACTS Drought: A drought and intense heatwave that lasted from the beginning of April to the end of September swept a dozen states, caused $10.5 billion in damage and killed 244 people, making it the most expensive and deadliest natural disaster this year as a lack of rainfall killed crops, ranchers saw their livestock become too expensive to feed and low water levels in the Mississippi River impacted commerce.

Storms: Two days of severe storms in southern and midwestern states like Texas, Alabama, Indiana and Ohio killed 13 people in March and caused $5.9 billion worth of tornado and wind damage to homes, businesses and other infrastructure.

Maui fires: In Hawaii, hurricane-force winds sparked devastating fires that killed at least 97 people and leveled the historic town of Lahaina in the deadliest American wildfire since 1918—NOAA estimates the August fire storm to have cost $5.6 billion as thousands of homes, vehicles and businesses were destroyed and tourism halted in parts of Maui County for months before re-opening in November.

Tornadoes: An outbreak of tornadoes in the central states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and beyond killed 33 people and caused $5.5 billion in damages to homes, businesses, vehicles, agriculture and other infrastructure at the end of March to become the fourth most-expensive natural disaster of the year.

Hail: The fifth most-expensive weather event was a series of severe storms over six days that stretched from the Rocky Mountains to as far east as Kentucky and brought a dramatic hail storm to a large outdoor concert in Colorado (injuring roughly 100 people) and more than 60 tornadoes touched down in six states, causing $5 billion in damage and killing eight. 📷Homes and businesses lay in ruins in Lahaina, Maui on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. GETTY IMAGES 📷A women sits among the rubble of a home as cleanup continues in the aftermath of a tornado in ...

BIG NUMBER 482. That’s how many people died from $1 billion climate disasters in 2023, according to NOAA.

KEY BACKGROUND Scientists have warned of an increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters as climate change continues to grip the globe. Rising water and air temperatures allow for rapid strengthening of hurricanes, more intense rainfall and quicker spreading wildfires, and study released in September showed that extreme weather events will also lower the quality of fresh water sources over time as they impact the concentration of nutrients, metals, microorganisms and plastics in rivers and streams. While 2023 brought the highest number of $1 billion disasters, it was not the most expensive year on record. Disasters last year cost almost twice as much — $165.1 billion as compared to the $81 billion of 2023 — but only 18 of those were billion-dollar events. NOAA calculates the cost of a natural disaster by analyzing the loss of buildings and their content; income losses to businesses; damage to vehicles and boats; damage to public assets like roads, bridges and levees; cost of fighting the disaster; and damage to agricultural assets, electrical infrastructure and offshore energy platforms — it does not factor in the costs of healthcare, damage to the supply chain or environmental degradation.SURPRISING FACT Every state in the country has experienced at least one $1 billion disaster since 1980. The central, south and southeast regions experience high-dollar disasters most frequently, NOAA reports, with at least some part of Texas experiencing more than 100 such events in the last 40 years. Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed New Orleans in 2005, is the costliest U.S. storm on record. Katrina caused $196.3 billion in damage (adjusted for inflation), according to NOAA. There were more $1 billion climate disasters in 2023 than in any other single year. The record was previously held by the year 2020, with 22.

FURTHER READING.....

Does Adam Smith's "invisible hand" stop working toward the end of economic expansions?

Question

11785 answers

Asked 18 January 2019

H.G. Callaway

Smith's idea of the “invisible hand” is the basis of the belief that large-scale government intervention and regulation of the economy is neither needed nor helpful. Smith put forward the notion of the invisible hand to argue that free individuals acting in a free economy, and making decisions that are primarily intended for their own self-interest, will, in fact, take actions that benefit society as a whole, even though such beneficial results were not the specific focus or purpose of those actions.

The central idea is that by means of the “invisible hand” purely self-interested actions and exchanges produce a large, unintended public good.

Quotations, Adam Smith,

The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV, Chapter V, Digression on the Corn Trade, p. 540, para. b 43.

…THE INVISIBLE HAND…

[rich people] consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity…they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society, and afford means to the multiplication of the species.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part IV, Chapter I, pp.184-5, para. 10.

Every individual... neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it... he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. ---End quotations

Smith goes on to argue that intentional intervention by government regulation, although intended to protect the common good or benefit society as a whole, in practice is usually less effective and beneficial than is a freely operating market. In many cases, it is actually harmful to the people in general, because it denies them the benefits of the free market. This is especially true if the intervention produces a sort of political feeding frenzy of political favor to special interests.

The general prosperity and economic growth resulting from expanded international trade is part of the evidence for Smith thesis. However, though it is plausible to believe that something like Smith's “invisible hand” provides for the public good by way of growing prosperity in the initial stages of economic growth, it is considerably less plausible that liberalization and expanding markets or expansion of international trade will always produce a public good commensurate with the harm they cause.

This is not a purely economic argument. Instead it suggests a political evaluation. Economic expansions are also known to produce considerable economic dislocations, people go unemployed and entire industries wander away; not all participants benefit equally.

More basically, by shifting and creating wealth both within and between political societies, extensive economic expansions also cause political dislocations that require political adjustments.

The basic problem is that the shifts in economic interests brought about by rapid and extensive economic expansions proceed much more quickly than the slow and laborious, deliberative and political processes required for making needed adjustments and introducing regulations as may be required --to meliorate untoward effects.

In consequence, political societies tend to be thrown into deep political problems and conflicts tending toward factional infighting, in the attempt to control the political process in the interest of various, older or newly established economic interests. The continued pursuit of self-interest then produces something like “crony capitalism” (an age of the “robber-barons”) and social-political strife; and, at the worst, the result is uncontrolled conflict both within and between organized political societies.

Can you provide me email information about author?

New question

2 answers

Asked 12 March 2025

Asawar Rafique

I hope this email finds you well. My name is Asawar Rafique, and I am a bachelor's student at Fatima Jinnah Women Universty. I am conducting a research study on parenting styles and their relationship with Narcissism ,fomo ,and digital detox. As part of my research, I am interested in using the Parenting Style Scale developed by Robinson.

Could you please provide me with the contact information of the author of the Parenting Style Scale, specifically Robinson, so I can request permission to use their scale in my research? Alternatively, if you could forward my request to the author, I would greatly appreciate it or give me Email .

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best regards,

Asawar Rafique

Email required of this author

These are the author and co-author.any detail about them.

How to add Psychological Resilience and Well-being to citations sent by Research Gate?

Question

1 answer

Asked 3 March 2025

Genevieve Chandler

Currently I only receive citations related to Adverse Childhood Experiences. How do I add psychological Resilience and Well-being citations?

How can AI be used to identify early signs of stress and anxiety in students based on their behavior and performance in class?

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3 answers

Asked 29 January 2025

Amna Younis

#Artificial Intelligence

#Stress

#Anxiety

The research trend on climate change is expected to change significantly post-Trump, potentially revealing a new approach to understanding the issue?

Question

18 answers

Asked 23 January 2025

Hossam Ismael

Is it expected that a specific research trend will emerge regarding the issue of climate change that is different from what preceded it, especially after the election of President Donald Trump?

The Los Angeles firestorm 1/7/2025 reducing Hollywood-Pasadena-Malibu homes to rubble is rooted in oil well drilling begun in 1900--true or false?

Discussion

9 replies

Asked 13 January 2025

Nancy Ann Watanabe

The economic disaster is billions of dollars (see below), which, however falls short of the trillions of dollars in economic gains cumulatively constructed making California the number one ranking economy among non-nation states.

"California Wildfires: Damage Exceeds $50 Billion

California's wildfires, some of the most destructive in history, have caused economic losses of more than $50 billion, Reuters reported.

The damage is estimated at between $52 billion and $57 billion and could increase if the fires reach densely populated areas.

"If a large number of buildings are destroyed, this could be the worst fire in California history in terms of destruction and economic losses," AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter said.

J.P. Morgan estimates insured losses from the fires at about $10 billion, mostly due to the destruction of residential properties. Consulting firm CoreLogic reports that more than 456,000 homes in the Los Angeles and Riverside areas are at moderate to high risk, and their restoration could cost about $300 billion.

Recall that as a result of the fires engulfing Los Angeles, at least two people have died, hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, and firefighting and water resources are almost exhausted. Strong winds are complicating the fight against the fire and accelerating its spread." Excerpt from the news article posted on Research Gate by Dr. Boris Michailovich Menin on January 12, 2025.

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What technologies could help stamp out fires in the Los Angeles hills?

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Asked 11 January 2025

Martine Labossiere

We see the Los Angeles area experiencing extreme drought and storm winds that carry embers from spontaneous fires into densely populated forested hills and valleys.

The scientific community is invited to urgently address this question:

“What technologies could be deployed to help extinguish these fires as well as prevent the recurrence of such disasters?”

Faced with the emergency situation currently observed in California, we need transdisciplinary knowledge, reflections and exchanges of experiences, as in the development of knowledge on fundamental rights (my main subject of interest).

Let's share ideas on this topic to propose solutions to these complex problems for our common protection.

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The religious sentiment.

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It must be confessed that psychologists have not troubled themselves greatly with the study of the religious sentiment. Some omit it altogether, while others content themselves with a brief reference in passing; they note the two essential elements whence it is derived--fear, and tender emotion (love)--without troubling themselves about the variabl...

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