When Arthur C. Brooks returned to academia in 2019 after 11 years away, he expected college students to be the generally happy demographic he remembered them as.
Instead, he discovered some troubling statistics. Depression rates had tripled among people under 30, he said, and anxiety had doubled. Loneliness and addiction rates were up as well; and 55% of students at Harvard University, where Brooks teaches, were seeking psychiatric care.
So he set out to discover the root of the problem. His conclusion?
“It turns out that the best predictor of depression and anxiety for people under 30 is to say that ‘My life feels meaningless,’” Brooks said, adding, “That’s what led to the mental health crisis among young adults that we see today. We have a meaning crisis.”
Brooks is a University of Utah impact scholar, a New York Times bestselling author and a professor at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership and happiness.
He was in Salt Lake City on Thursday, April 30, to deliver a commencement speech at the University of Utah’s graduation services; but he first spoke at an interfaith event hosted by the Murray Utah YSA Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dozens of young adults and community leaders turned out at 8 a.m., packing a Church chapel and spilling into the overflow area.
Among those in attendance were University of Utah President Taylor Randall; the Rev. Anthony Savas from the St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church in Sandy, Utah; and Murray YSA Stake President Clark Ivory.
Speaking briefly as the event closed, President Randall said Brooks has “given us a recipe today to try to take some interventions to find meaning in our lives. …
“We will ask this question, ‘What is our meaning?’ all through life. And I want you to know sometimes that question and that moment will become forced on you. But why don’t we take Arthur’s advice and do it ourselves?”
Complex vs. complicated problems
Brooks said the idea of “meaning” became scarce around 2008 during the technology boom that resulted in widespread cellphone use. This, in turn, caused a culture shift in which everything is based on information and analysis.
“You’re not carrying around your phone for any other reason except that you want information at any second that it might cross your mind,” Brooks said. “That’s a culture problem, not a technology problem. … And quite frankly, it broke our brains.”
The issue with having constant access to so much information, Brooks continued, is that it effectively solved the problem of boredom — and boredom is necessary for cultivating a meaningful life.
It’s boredom that activates particular brain structures that allow for flights of fancy or thoughts about the future, Brooks said. In other words, “you literally need to be bored to find the meaning of your life.”
To further explain this, Brooks first explained that different parts of the brain work on different types of problems. The “right brain,” he said, deals with “complex problems,” defined as issues that are understood but aren’t fully solvable. These types of challenges include navigating relationships, building faith and — unsurprisingly — grappling with what makes life meaningful.
In contrast, the “left brain” deals with “complicated problems,” defined as difficult but entirely solvable challenges such as inventing new technologies or choosing a college major.
Everything that people do on their phones is a complicated problem, Brooks said; and issues arise when someone is so focused on technology — on their left-brained “complicated problems” — that the right brain stays turned off.
And when a person’s right brain is off, they don’t engage with the questions that make life meaningful, Brooks said.
“All the things that you care about in life are complex, … [but] all the things that you’re doing all day long — participating in our culture of analysis and engineering and information and technology — is pushing you to the left side of your brain,” Brooks said. “And what that is doing is emptying your life of meaning and mystery.”
Seeking transcendence
Brooks said the solution isn’t to entirely abandon technology. Rather, he advocated for intentional technology use that creates space for cultivating meaning.
For instance, he recommended exercising without devices and not looking at phones for the first and last hours of the day. He also suggested having “phone-free zones,” such as bedrooms and the dinner table. As people use technology intentionally, they’ll feel their brains “start coming to life.”
“The essence of you, the essence of being made in God’s image, is to ask questions — not to answer them. … And that’s what you will start to do when you’re living the right way,” Brooks said.
He also encouraged listeners to “live in a state of transcendence.” Standing in awe of something bigger than oneself is “the essence of complexity,” Brooks said.
For instance, some people feel this way when looking at the stars or while studying the great philosophers. But the best way to experience transcendence, Brooks said, is through practicing faith in God.
“In doing that, you’ll open the aperture and the answers to the questions to which you only dimly, darkly can perceive through an analytical framework,” Brooks said.
He continued: “At the end of the day, [God] is the ultimate concept of ‘better,’ the ultimate understanding of ‘meaning’ — the ultimate bliss that is our eternal reward, which is life with our Heavenly Father.”
