Arthur C. Brooks argues young people follow a toxic online formula: love things, use people, worship yourself. He proposes three fixes: no phones during meals and the first and last hour of the day, ask existential questions like "Why am I alive?", and save love for people and worship for God.
I ask my students, how did you spend your day? I woke up, my phone is my alarm clock. I scrolled my phone over breakfast. I went to work on Zoom. I dated on the apps. I saw my friends on social media. I watched YouTube Shorts and I went to bed. That is not a real life. If you want to know the problem that young people have today, it's that they have a mistaken, a counterfeit formula for a good life. Here it is: love things, use people, worship yourself. That's life online, my friends, and that is utterly bereft of meaning. When you take meaning out of people's lives, what do they do? They cry out. They want something more. They can't stand it. They're unhappy. So let me tell you what we need to do in 3 steps. Based on the science of how to get back into the right side of your brain and how we can bring that to other people. Number 1, rage, rage against the machine. You, I mean every one of you, are addicted to your devices. So what do you do? Well, the data are clear, the science is settled. First hour of the day, meal times, last hour of the day, neurocognitive programming in real life, The science is very clear that you don't have to throw your phone in the ocean. You just need a new relationship with it. Second is this: we need to go deeper. When my students start asking those questions, "Why am I alive?" and "For what would I give my life?" the aperture of meaning opens and meaning starts to find them. Why? Because these are meaning questions, and asking the questions is the essence of the meaning of life. Last but not least is this: use things. With abundance and gratitude. Use things, understand markets, use energy, use it with gratitude. That's good, but don't love it. Love is designated in real life for people, the people in front of you, the people around you, the people under your roof, everybody through the way that you earn your daily bread. And last but not least, reserve your worship for what deserves worship, and that's God alone. These are our values. This is what we stand for. And if we teach these simple things, we can unbreak our brains. And in so doing that, we will know the meaning in our lives and teach people the meaning in theirs.
