Ep. 398: How Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (w/ Arthur Brooks)

So here's a conundrum about technology and happiness in our current moment. Did smartphones make us miserable? Or were we already miserable and then turned to smartphones to cope and this ended up making things worse? Now this answer matters. If the second option is right, then creating a deep life in a distracted world is not just about reforming our use of technology.

It involves fixing a more fundamental problem. And this is what I want to talk about today. To help me, I'll be joined by Arthur Brooks, who is a number one New York Times bestselling author, columnist for the Atlantic. A professor who teaches leadership and happiness at Harvard. Brooks has a new book out that's called The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.

In it, he argues that we entered into this age of emptiness starting in the 1990s, and then in the last decade, new technologies like smartphones and social media served to to make things worse. In our discussion, we get into the details of the shift and just importantly we explore Brooks's advice for rediscovering the purpose that we've lost. So if you're at all interested in seeking depth in our current moment, you need to listen to this episode. As always, I'm Cal Newport, and this is Deep Questions, the show for people seeking depth in a distracted world.

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