Jennifer Breheny Wallace

We do not have backup systems to remind us of our worth.

So instead, it makes us feel even more isolated.

So I do think, and by the way, I think tech,

has fueled this erosion of mattering and magnified it.

When you go to Silicon Valley, all of the companies, the startup tech companies talk about a frictionless experience.

that they want the customer to be able to press a button and get their food, get their product.

Things should be easy.

This frictionless life that tech is trying to deliver for us has really lowered our tolerance for friction in our everyday lives.

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.