Many people in today’s society are struggling to find their why. We question our meaning or our greater purpose that makes us feel significant on this planet. Constantly, as human being, we try and find ways to make us feel larger than we actually are. In other words, if we believe that our lives had a deeper and more profound impact on others, then we feel our lives had meaning. In McGonigal’s article, he explains that video games, such as Halo, can help gamers feel a greater sense of depth in their lives. This is shown when the Halo players reached the milestone of 10 billion kills. In Pollan’s article, “Why Bother”, he states that it is a human tendency for us to focus on “single-minded” thoughts and money based solutions that will easily
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McGonigal’s article starts with an introduction to a story about a famous video game called Halo. Halo is a fiction game made by Microsoft and can be played on the widely known Xbox. In April 2009, a milestone was reached for the over 15 million gamers who play Halo: 10 billion kills in Covenant. Many would think question the meaning of this achievement because it is just a fictional video game that has no real significance. However, many players of the game said that after this experience, they feel that they had a deeper sense of accomplishment and felt part of a whole. Meaning is such a simple word but can be interpreted quite differently. McGonigal states that meaning is “the feeling that our actions matter beyond our own individual lives (446, McGonigal).” He believes that once we feel apart of the bigger picture and that our actions are validated, then we believe we have meaning. We are constantly searching for more meaning in our lives. Whether small or big, people want to feel validated and feel that their actions can cause an impact on others. McGonigal finds that in order to find our why or bigger purpose, we need to find what the meaning of our being …show more content…
In contrast, Pollen states that as humans, we do strive for a larger purpose, but our own minds impede our level of success. In his article, Why Bother, he explains that people can tend to be “cheap-energy minded”. This means that we tend to ask the negative questions why bother because it is quite difficult to imagine a different, less reliant, more significant life than of the one we currently have. Humans crave three main basic needs in order to feel that their meaning is significant: certainty, variety, and contribution. Certainty gives assurance that will help avoid pain in the future and gain pleasure for future endeavors. Variety gives us a sense of new stimuli and change. Lastly, contribution gives us a sense of service and focus that would more or less help us learn to support ourselves. Pollen describes in his article that habits of the mind take time to grow, like a garden, and that negativity can only flourish if you allow it to. “...the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, and think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world (768, Pollen).” Pollen focuses on the negative aspects of our mind and how we can overcome what are minds tell us that we cannot in order to find our greater
McGonigal’s article starts with an introduction to a story about a famous video game called Halo. Halo is a fiction game made by Microsoft and can be played on the widely known Xbox. In April 2009, a milestone was reached for the over 15 million gamers who play Halo: 10 billion kills in Covenant. Many would think question the meaning of this achievement because it is just a fictional video game that has no real significance. However, many players of the game said that after this experience, they feel that they had a deeper sense of accomplishment and felt part of a whole. Meaning is such a simple word but can be interpreted quite differently. McGonigal states that meaning is “the feeling that our actions matter beyond our own individual lives (446, McGonigal).” He believes that once we feel apart of the bigger picture and that our actions are validated, then we believe we have meaning. We are constantly searching for more meaning in our lives. Whether small or big, people want to feel validated and feel that their actions can cause an impact on others. McGonigal finds that in order to find our why or bigger purpose, we need to find what the meaning of our being …show more content…
In contrast, Pollen states that as humans, we do strive for a larger purpose, but our own minds impede our level of success. In his article, Why Bother, he explains that people can tend to be “cheap-energy minded”. This means that we tend to ask the negative questions why bother because it is quite difficult to imagine a different, less reliant, more significant life than of the one we currently have. Humans crave three main basic needs in order to feel that their meaning is significant: certainty, variety, and contribution. Certainty gives assurance that will help avoid pain in the future and gain pleasure for future endeavors. Variety gives us a sense of new stimuli and change. Lastly, contribution gives us a sense of service and focus that would more or less help us learn to support ourselves. Pollen describes in his article that habits of the mind take time to grow, like a garden, and that negativity can only flourish if you allow it to. “...the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, and think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world (768, Pollen).” Pollen focuses on the negative aspects of our mind and how we can overcome what are minds tell us that we cannot in order to find our greater