That may be the underlying cause of some suicides but it doesn't explain why depression and suicides have increased for teenagers in the last 5 years. Also, if we need distraction to survive the ultimate meaninglessness of life as you claim then why would technology make depression worse instead of better?

> why would technology make depression worse instead of better?

I can only speak for myself, of course, and in my case, the ever increasing access to information and social contacts, actually eliminates the hope of finding any large-scale meaning in this world, ever-so-gradually, when you keep failing to see any point no matter what you learn and who you meet.

Not exactly depression, maybe it falls under nihilism, but.. Everything just is, and it doesn't ultimately matter what you do.

I suspect that even if I had a starship capable of traveling to other worlds, and a long enough lifespan to see them all, I'd still find everything ultimately pointless.

So what if life objectively has no meaning? You can only experience it through your own subjective viewpoint, so why not find something that is subjectively meaningful to you?

And there lies the problem. That means your lack of existence is on par with anything else. So you can find something random meaningful to you or poof just end it early.

Usually this leads to drugs first and not outright suicide, but it is still nonetheless quite harmful to the individual.

I think you missed my point... your lack of existence is on par with anything else, to some objective observer. You are not an objective observer. You can choose to care about yourself. You just have to accept the trade off that caring about something means there will inevitably be some pain to go along with it too when things don't work out the way you want.

>Humans cannot be truly happy unless we keep ourselves seriously deluded or constantly distracted; with biosocial emotions, religion, duty, hope, ambition, goals, pleasure or whatever.

Typical internet denizen idea of humanity.

Religious people are not all deluding themselves into happiness. Quite a lot of them find religion to be a framework with comes with its own sources of existential dread.

Emotions are a delusion to keep us happy? Hope is also a delusion to keep us happy? ...what?

Almost all of the things that drive us and govern our lives are based entirely on the approval of other humans or our biological needs; the approval of our parents, peer pressure, love, sex, academic grades, job, income, social/political/professional standing, or religion and the idea of deities, and even the worth/value of our contribution to society..

Would any of these matter at all to a different intelligent species? Say, a hypothetical species without any gender. Poof. More than half of human values and aspirations become meaningless.

"Happiness" that is to last for more than a fleeting moment depends entirely on what we choose to believe. That is some pretty flimsy grounds.

>Would any of these matter at all to a different intelligent species?

That's not how mattering works.

On the other hand, I just noticed your username, and you know, it totally fits. How did I not notice that the guy proclaiming the pointlessness of life is calling himself, "Rasengan"? Come on, please tell me this is all some jocular TTGL reference.