Jennifer Breheny Wallace

And what are relationships?

They are friction makers, right?

Humans create friction.

And so sitting on our couch and sending a text or sitting on our couch and scrolling instead of putting on our clothes, going out in the cold, having dinner with a friend where there might be some awkward conversation or they may say something that disappoints us, that it is very easy to escape that.

relationships in technology.

But what it is doing is that it is making us feel lonely and like we matter less.

And so all of these things, these ecosystems that no longer exist, tech selling us this idea that life should be frictionless, they really pulled us away from relationships that once delivered pretty regularly this sense of mattering for us.

So I do think it's a modern phenomenon.

And with the advent of the AI, I think it's only going to get worse if we don't stop, name this need that all of us have, and understand how to meet it for ourselves and for the people in our lives that we care about.

Amazing.

Thanks so much.

After the need for food and shelter, it is the need to matter that shapes our behavior.

People will go to desperate measures to prove they matter, even in a negative way.

Thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, I thought I knew what it meant to matter.

I had this, you know, it's a word we hear kicked around.

But what I found fascinating is that not only do we all have it, not only is it a universal human need, but that it is...

the driver of human behavior for better or for worse.

So what I mean by that is, after the need for food and shelter, it is the need to matter, the drive to matter that shapes our behavior.

When we feel like we matter to each other, to our communities, to our workplaces, we show up to the world in positive ways.