Like Elon Musk once said, “When I was a kid, I was wondering kind of what’s the meaning of life? Like, why are we here? What’s it all about?”. But these simple question are no longer just for philosopher to think about. Today young people frequently confront them amid an age of unprecedented technology, prosperity, and convenience. With a tap on a screen we can order food, hail rides, or watch endless videos and tutorial, yet this frictionless abundance doesn’t really bring genuine happiness or fulfillment like we expect. Surveys show how many Millennials and Gen Z feels lost despite “having everything.” For example a 2026 Gallup study find that 45% of Gen Zers report lacking meaning or purpose in their lives. Similarly a 2017 LinkedIn survey found 75% of 25–33 year olds had experience a “quarter-life” crisis around career and purpose. In other words, many young adult repeatedly ask, “Why am I doing all this?” whilst they simply going the motions of work, take a look at and social media.
This widespread “why-am-I-doing-this?” feeling are regularly categorised an existential crisis, that’s a factor whilst humans starts to impeach who they’re and why do they even exist. It resonate deeply with Albert Camus’ concept of the Absurd. Camus (1913–1960) was a French philosopher and author who describe the Absurd as the clash between our deep yearning for meaning and a silent, indifferent universe that offer no ready answers. Camus help explain in his works why modern life with all its comfort can still leave us feeling so hollow inside. Rather than view this crisis as a pathology, Camus would see it as a opportunity, like a moment to pause the automatic routines of life and reflect on who we are, why we exist, and what truly matter. This kind of awakening can empowers us to build a more authentic life guided by enduring value of truth, goodness and beauty.
Camus famously illustrate the Absurd with the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was condemn by the gods to roll a heavy boulder up a mountain, only to watch it roll back down, repeating this futile labor for eternity. Camus compare our modern routine to Sisyphus’s punishment. He describe a everyday pattern which goes like: “Rising, tram, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, tram, four hours of work, meal, sleep and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday…”. Day after day this cycle continue, until one day the question “why?” abruptly interrupt the monotony. In other words, the routines of daily life are easily followed most of the time, until the weariness and a tinge of wonder finally make us ask why we follow them.
Camus argued that Sisyphus “must be imagined happy.” The key is that the struggle itself is what give us a chance at meaning. As Camus writes, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” Even if our “boulder” roll back down each day, the very act of pushing it of choosing how to respond to life’s absurdity it can fill our heart. We do not needs an external script because we author our own meaning through conscious choice.
Another character of Camus, Meursault in The Stranger, he embody the danger of living life as a performance. Meursault is condemn not so much for the crime he commit but more for the fact that he refuse to play along with society’s script. At his mother’s funeral he do not cry or display the expected grief. His honest indifference and refusal to pretend emotions make people uncomfortable, and ultimately contributes to society judging him harshly. Through Meursault, Camus show how hard it is to remain true to oneself when society already expect us to act a certain way.
This concept echo strongly in our social media age. Today many sense strain to offer an idealized model of lifestyles online. We submit glad photographs and achievements—the highlights reel—even though truth feels absolutely distinct to that. We would possibly smile for a selfie at the same time as feeling exhausted or lonely inside. Sociologists notice that that is a conventional case of influence management. Erving Goffman likened social interactions to theatrical performances with a clear “the front degree” and “lower back degree”. On the the front degree in public (and on social media), we tailors our behavior, look and expressions to what we suppose others expect. We pass over the private “backstage” facet of ourselves in which we is probably restless, imperfect or unsure.
Over time constantly living for others’ approval, it can turns us into strangers to ourselves. If we spends too much energy being who we think others want us to be, we forgets what we actually feel and want. This can creates what cultural critic Mark Fisher call “depressive hedonia.” Under neoliberal pressure people may feels compelled to pursue constant pleasure (through consumption, social media likes, entertainment) while still feeling something is missing. In this state even fun become a chore which is an obligatory display of enjoyment. In short, substituting real agency with performed positivity or “toxic positivity” can leaves us hollow, as Fisher observed. The loss of a private “backstage” on social media mean the authentic self atrophies, making life feels like an endless, scripted routine.
Ironically, one reason super-convenience can feels empty is that our brain are wired for effort and challenge. Anthropologists and neurobiologists suggests that overcoming resistance trigger our reward circuits (releasing dopamine and endorphins) in a way that raw comfort cannot. Like for example, studies of the Hadza (a Tanzanian hunter-gatherer people) shows they engage in many hour of grueling physical activity each day. Anthropologist Dennis Ougrin and colleagues found how only 3.6% of Hadza children met criteria for any psychiatric disorder, compared to 11.8% of Western children. (Notably, none of the Hadza children met criteria for anxiety or mood disorders at all.) This suggest that active, communal lifestyle may protects against the chronic disorientation and depression common in sedentary modern life.
In other words our biology expect some challenge. When physical friction is strip away by automation, we may short-circuit an ancient feedback loop that once help us feel meaning. If we never struggles or achieve through effort, our brain may interpret life as aimless drift. This could helps explain why so many people despite material abundance, still experiences an existential malaise. Because neuroscience show dopamine respond not just to reward but often to the pursuit of reward, the wanting and effort, not just passive consumption.
True purpose is really hard to find it alone. Camus illustrate this in The Plague: Dr. Bernard Rieux fight a deadly epidemic not from heroic idealism but from simple human decency and duty to others. Purpose, Camus suggest, is forged in communal struggle and empathy, not isolation. Modern data support this: the Gallup 2026 study found that Gen Zers who feels they make a positive impact on others is three to four times more likely to report that their lives feel meaningful. In fact those who strongly agrees they help others reports extremely high meaning, while those who disagree report very little.
First, we must pivots from passive consumption to actual action. In a digital economy engineered to keeps us mindlessly and repetitively scrolling and spectating, reclaiming agency begin when we choose creation over mere consumption by investing our energy into learning, cultivating moral character, developing life skills, and actively planting trees and volunteering.
Second, and possibly greater essentially, true purpose is hard to finds in apathy and indifference toward others or oneself; it is found in love between human beings, a love for life, and gratitude for what we already has.. Camus illustrated this profound transition in The Plague (La Peste) thru Dr. Bernard Rieux, who tirelessly fight an unrelenting epidemic now no longer out of romanticized heroism, however out of primary human decency and obligation in the direction of others. Real reason is hardly ever find in solitude; it’s far cast thru connection. Recent empirical findings through Gallup replicate this truth: younger folks who trust they make a tremendous effect on others is 3 to 4 instances much more likely to revel in a profound feel of that means of their lives. By tethering our each day efforts to the wellbeing of others, pushing our boulder up the hill stop feeling like a punishment and transform into an act of dignity.
Ultimately, the existential crisis haunting our generation are not a personal failure, but an essential awakening. It serve as an internal warning that convenient routine and automatic comfort cannot sustains the human soul in the right way . Instead, we must opens our hearts, face to face with pain and failure head-on, and keep moving forward, feeling the world with empathy and human warmth. If you is alive today, with a healthy body and the people you love still by your side, that in itself are true happiness. Architect Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti project were designed around such solidarity. Residents there lives and work together in communal workshops and shared spaces, deliberately foregoing many private luxury to build a community by hand. While it’s hard to quantify “existential coherence” in Arcosanti, Soleri believe strongly that meaning emerges through collective effort, not isolated comfort. After all, to my mind the purpose of life are to plant seeds for more meaningful lives to come.
By: Tran Hoang Bao Ngoc
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