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Whenever we browse the Internet, we have a desire to receive some kind of fulfillment, to know what is new, to see something funny, and to consume something enjoyable. The network offers countless opportunities, and we choose whatever we feel like enjoying at the moment. On the surface, it seems great, but in the end, it turns out that the technological age has only intensified depression, emptiness, loneliness, anxiety, and stress. So what would it mean to create a better social network, one that leads us to positive, harmonious, peaceful, and happy feelings?
Unlike today’s networks, the network of tomorrow needs to have a clear purpose, to help human beings develop meaningful connections with their environment. This means enabling connection with each other in increasingly deep, close, and open ways. It needs to be a connection that will bring a sense of existence on a new level, one that is boundless, not limited to time, space, and motion, a breakthrough beyond the boundaries of perception.
Today’s emptiness stems from the fact that social networks are not aligned with the internal development that human beings have undergone in recent years. What does that mean? In general, what drives us from within is the force of desire, the desire to receive pleasure and enjoyment, the will to enjoy. This desire’s development led to the invention of the Internet, a tool that lets us form various connections and gain fulfillment through them. However, since then, the desire has continued to evolve, and now it requires connections and fulfillments at higher levels.
The next qualitative leap will not only be technological, but first and foremost a transformation of the human being who uses the network. We will need to deeply study the structure of human desire, how it develops, why, and toward what, and continually guide its users to states where they can connect in more mutually beneficial and positive ways with others.
The network must be intelligent, adaptive, and managed by people who understand that the world is moving to a state of integral and perfect connection among everyone, one where harmony dwells in the unity within humanity and with all of nature.
Whether we want it or not, evolution is pushing in that direction. Any reasonable person understands that in the interconnected and interdependent world we have created, we are all in the same boat. If we do not learn to work together, to rise above ego-driven games and cooperate, we will simply sink. On the other hand, if we find a way to truly connect, an wholly new world will open before us, one of consideration, reciprocity, and support, where we can harness the wonders of technology for the benefit of humanity instead of its detriment. The integral connection we create will bring a new reality that is filled with a sense of purpose, happiness, and excitement.
Developing this integral perception will require an educational and cultural process, and here the social network can find its next stage of evolution. It should teach us how to connect with each other better and better through which we receive higher-quality fulfillment and greater enjoyment.
To illustrate this: Today, we enter the network and are essentially told, “Do whatever you want.” We wander around, buy whatever is advertised to us, and waste time, without realizing our potential or developing as human being. This concept is outdated. To retain users, and attract many more, the network of tomorrow must bring light into people’s lives. It must present challenges, games, and tasks, various experiences that encourage users to connect with others reciprocally, to find deep, warm, and uplifting bonds.
As much of the content we encounter on social networks depends on their algorithms, i.e., on settings defined by those who control the system. Broadly speaking, the algorithm of tomorrow should be based on rewarding positive attitudes to others, and the opposite as well. Every interaction that advances connection and friendship should give the user something that fills them with a sense of enjoyment. As users progress, the network should raise the bar, refining each user’s ability to connect with others more deeply and lovingly.
Like a caring mother, the network should constantly seek ways to help people grow as human beings, to gently guide them to more and more positive connection so they can see life more broadly. It should provide feedback and recognition, connect users with each other at a similar level of development, and create shared projects and creative experiences for them. Everything should be designed as one great adventure.
As we move into times where more and more people will be displaced from the workforce as advanced technologies take over, there will be a global challenge of employment and purpose. The smart network described here could absorb everyone, providing meaningful engagement in developing integral connection and building a new society.
As we progress through this process, we will discover that a harmonious, happy, and peaceful human connection enables us to receive a kind of fulfillment that is not of this world, to uncover a collective intelligence underlying nature, a universal desire and fulfillment, a higher source that nourishes us abundantly. Connection to it is only possible together, by stepping out of ourselves toward others in love. And it is toward this common space that the wheels of evolution are carrying us. I wish us success on this path.
Based on “New Life 138 – Social Networks” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.