We rarely go an entire week without a colleague, a friend, or a recommendation algorithm bringing us back to a big question: why we do what we do, what really matters, and what we will leave behind. These inquiries about the meaning of life are not reserved for philosophy classes. They arise in very concrete moments: a job change, a bereavement, a late-night conversation that veers towards the essential.
When virtual reality and generative AI create meaning for us
In recent years, virtual reality headsets have offered so-called “transformative” experiences: end-of-life simulations, immersions in vanished natural environments, reconstructions of family memories. The stated goal is to provoke an existential step back, an emotional trigger meant to help the user reassess their priorities.
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The problem is that the meaning created by an algorithm remains a consumer product. You put on a headset, experience a calibrated emotion, and then return to your screen. The existential question has not been traversed; it has been simulated. We then confuse the intensity of an immersive experience with the depth of personal reflection.
Generative AI poses a similar problem. Asking a chatbot “what is the meaning of my life” produces a smooth, reassuring, sometimes touching response. You get in thirty seconds what an inner dialogue would take months to articulate. Some users report temporary relief, while others describe a form of dependency on these ready-made answers, a way to escape the work that these existential questions require.
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In this area, Pour Qui Pourquoi ? approaches the process differently, bringing the big questions back to lived situations rather than automatically generated answers.
Meaning of life and social contribution: what recent surveys show
According to an international survey by the B2V Observatory of Memories conducted with Ipsos in 2024, a growing share of young adults associates the meaning of life with social and environmental contribution, rather than material success. The progression compared to the same survey conducted in 2018 is clear.
This shift has very concrete consequences on daily life. We see it in career change choices, in the rise of jobs related to impact, and in salary negotiations where the company’s “mission” weighs as much as the salary. The quest for meaning is no longer a philosophical luxury; it is a decision-making criterion at work.
Personal development or collective engagement
Personal development has long captured this demand for meaning by bringing it back to the individual: meditating, journaling, optimizing well-being. The B2V survey suggests a shift. Meaning is no longer found solely in introspection but in what we do for others and for the world.
The two approaches are not necessarily opposed. A study from the University of Geneva published in 2023 in Frontiers in Psychology shows that the regular practice of mindfulness meditation sustainably reduces existential anxiety and increases the sense of life coherence. Introspection works, as long as it does not loop back on itself.
Philosophy for children and education on existential questions
It is often thought that existential questions are an adult affair. The field says otherwise. Since 2021, UNESCO has encouraged the explicit integration of existential, ethical, and meaningful questions into philosophy education for children in several pilot countries.
The idea is not to turn eight-year-olds into readers of Sartre. It is about giving them a framework to articulate what they already feel: the fear of death, perceived injustice, the need to understand why the world works as it does. These skills are now on par with digital skills in the educational objectives of the 21st century according to UNESCO.
What it changes in practice in a classroom
A philosophy workshop for children does not resemble a lecture. It starts from a lived situation (a fight in the playground, the death of a pet, a question posed by a classmate) and collectively builds a reflection. The teacher’s role is not to provide the answer but to maintain the framework for dialogue.
Feedback varies on this point, but several pilot programs report an improvement in children’s ability to tolerate uncertainty, which is precisely the skill that existential questions develop in humans, regardless of age.
Existential anxiety in daily life: spotting the spiral and getting out
We are not talking here about the philosophical question posed calmly on a Sunday morning. We are talking about the existential anxiety that arises at two in the morning, the one that prevents sleep, that makes every decision paralyzing, that turns the freedom of choice into vertigo.
This spiral has an identifiable mechanism:
- A thought about the meaning of existence appears spontaneously, often triggered by an event (birthday, bereavement, professional transition)
- The mind tries to solve the question like a logical problem, seeks a definitive answer, finds none
- The absence of an answer generates anxiety, which restarts the search, which restarts the anxiety
- The cycle repeats until exhaustion or forced distraction
Breaking out of this loop involves accepting that the question has no single solution. Acceptance-based and mindfulness approaches show documented results on this point. We do not eliminate the question; we change the relationship we have with it.
When to consult a professional
If existential anxiety prevents functioning in daily life (persistent sleep disturbances, social avoidance, continuous rumination), it falls under therapeutic support. The line between a healthy inquiry into the meaning of life and a pathological spiral lies in the concrete impact on work, relationships, and health.
Existential questions do not disappear because we have found an answer. They return, in different forms, at every turn of existence. What changes is our ability to welcome them without being paralyzed, whether we are eight years old in a UNESCO pilot class or forty years old facing a screen that offers to “generate meaning” with a click.