Dr. Alok 'Dr. K' Kanojia

This is what existential depression is.

In order to have meaning in life, what we need is we need a past.

to come into our present, and then we need our present actions to help us build a future.

And the future should be full of possibilities.

This is why people get addicted to video games.

And all of these apps now have gamification.

Why?

Because we are so empty with our sense of progress and forward momentum in life that all of these apps have figured out if we give someone XP and leveling up, and if we give them some sense of grinding towards something...

then that scratches that itch of existential depression.

In existential depression, you want to be moving forward, but you don't know how to move forward.

That's why we will grind video games for 10,000 hours.

I want you all to think about this for a second.

Every day you play a video game, it's not even that much fun.

Why do you grind so hard for meaningless things?

It's because you have a meaningless life and the illusion of meaning from something like a video game and the illusion of progress.

So now the question becomes, OK, if this is the case, what do we do about it?

Right.

Because cognitive behavioral therapy may not work.

Antidepressants may not work.

How do we tackle this problem?