I suspect pessimism toward the future is rising because more people are not finding life to be satisfyingly meaningful. I think many people have been moving aw

I suspect pessimism toward the future is rising because more people are not finding life to be satisfyingly meaningful. I think many people have been moving away from traditional sources of personal meaning (religion, civic duty, nuclear family, etc), but we haven't been replacing these age old 'guiding principles' with anything that's equally compelling. Instead we seem to be focusing our lives ever more around unshared point sources of life experience like social media and entertainment streams, which are largely passive and unshareable. This passivity increases separation and pushes us away from awareness and involvement in the needs of other people who are important to us, much less inhibits us in serving those needs. That seems like the perfect recipe for loneliness.