Why 60% of young adults report their lives feel meaningless despite achieving success—and how reclaiming boredom, real friendship, and risk-taking can restore purpose in an age of digital simulation. Meaning has cratered since 2008 as young people optimize for enjoyment and satisfaction while abandoning complex questions about purpose, making meaninglessness the strongest predictor of depression and anxiety. Our brains evolved to solve complex problems like love and marriage through the right hemisphere, but constant smartphone use pushes us exclusively to the left hemisphere, which only handles complicated problems with formulaic answers.