Steven Bartlett with Dr Bill von Hippel
Despite living in the safest, wealthiest era in history, human happiness is stagnating because modern conveniences have allowed us to trade much of our essential need for a tribe for greater personal autonomy.
Our evolutionary drive for autonomy originally helped us secure the best personal prospects within a tight-knit tribe, but today it can cause us to self-isolate and weaken the social connections tied to psychological well-being.
While urban living and increased wealth provide more opportunities and comfort, they also strip away the mandatory interdependence that naturally bonds poorer communities together.
Modern innovations like pornography and social media hijack our biological reward systems by providing high-stimulus, low-effort substitutes that can reduce actual sexual intimacy and real-world socializing.