Existentialism & The Internet - Why We’re Getting More Anxious

TL;DR

The internet can intensify anxiety by making contradictory guidance about life constantly visible, preventing stable decision-making.

Briefing Cornell Notes

Briefing

The modern internet age is amplifying anxiety by flooding people with conflicting guidance on how to live—while offering no stable, universal answers to settle the debate. As religious authority fades in many Western societies and information becomes easier to access, more people encounter the sense that “truth” is fragmented: religion, philosophy, science, government, parenting, and self-help all seem to produce partial, unreliable, or contradictory conclusions. The result is a constant cycle of second-guessing—every time a person nears a decision, a new idea arrives that undermines the last one, eroding trust in any framework for living.

Existentialism, as framed through Jean-Paul Sartre, treats that uncertainty not as a problem to eliminate but as a condition to live through. Sartre’s core claim is that existence comes before essence: humans have no predetermined purpose or built-in script for how to live. Instead, meaning and direction arise through choices and actions made in the world. That freedom is real, but it is also unsettling. Because people cannot know in advance whether their choices are “good” or “right,” they carry responsibility without the comfort of guaranteed moral or practical certainty—captured in Sartre’s line that humans are “condemned to be free,” responsible for everything they do.

The internet intensifies this existential pressure by making contradiction feel omnipresent. Endless content can look like endless solutions, yet it rarely delivers timeless guidance that applies to everyone. Existentialism interprets this mismatch as structural: there are no definitive answers that remove hardship or uncertainty for all people. The implication is not to stop engaging with ideas, but to treat them with skepticism and lower expectations that any single philosophy or piece of advice can deliver a final blueprint for life.

In place of ultimate certainty, existentialism offers a “template of wisdom”: accept the absurdity and meaninglessness of life’s lack of fixed rules, then transmute that chaos into personal meaning through lived experience. Sartre’s emphasis on being alone with “infinite responsibilities” points to a practical stance—people must rely on themselves, forge their own destiny, and test what feels true through action rather than waiting for external validation.

That shift reframes anxiety as a byproduct of searching for a single correct path. Early life often presents a small set of predetermined routes toward perfection and happiness, but existentialism suggests there are endless ways to live, each individually constructed. Once someone accepts there are no fundamental shared rules, the pressure to conform can loosen. Instead of chasing the “right” way, people can look inward, decide how they want to experience life, and mold their choices accordingly—using freedom not as a burden to escape, but as the raw material for building a life that feels worth enduring.

Cornell Notes

The internet can increase anxiety by exposing people to constant, conflicting advice about how to live, while providing no stable, universal truth. Sartre’s existentialism argues that humans have no predetermined purpose—existence comes before essence—so meaning is created through choices and actions. That freedom brings responsibility without certainty: no one can know in advance whether a decision is truly “right,” yet people must still decide. Existentialism therefore treats uncertainty as a condition to live with, not a flaw to eliminate. The practical takeaway is to engage with ideas skeptically, then build personal meaning through lived experience rather than waiting for an ultimate answer.

Why does constant access to information not necessarily reduce uncertainty—and how does that connect to anxiety?

The transcript links anxiety to a flood of content that often contradicts itself. When people can easily find “solutions” and perspectives, they also see how many of those perspectives clash. With no stable authority left to settle disputes, each new idea can undermine the last one, triggering second-guessing. Existentialism interprets this as the absence of timeless answers that apply to everyone, so the search for certainty keeps restarting and never fully resolves.

What does Sartre mean by “existence precedes essence,” and why does it matter for how people live?

Sartre’s existentialism holds that humans are not born with a fixed purpose or a ready-made essence that dictates how to live. Instead, purpose and a way of living emerge from decisions and actions taken in life. That matters because it removes the expectation of a single correct script. People must create meaning rather than discover it as an external fact.

How does Sartre’s idea of freedom produce anxiety instead of comfort?

Freedom is unsettling because it comes with responsibility and no guaranteed way to judge choices as “good” or “bad” in advance. The transcript emphasizes that human conditions don’t allow reliable certainty about whether a life-molding decision is best. Sartre’s line—“Man is condemned to be free”—captures the idea that once thrown into the world, people are responsible for what they do, even without knowing the outcome’s moral correctness.

What role does the internet play in making existential themes feel more urgent?

The internet acts like a spotlight on contradiction: it makes conflicting philosophies, methods, and life advice constantly visible. That creates the sensation of endless options but no definitive guidance. Existentialism frames this as evidence that no universal, timeless answers exist for human life, so people feel disconnected and confused when they cannot find a truth that resolves alienation.

If there’s no ultimate answer, what does existentialism recommend people do?

The transcript points to a “template of wisdom”: accept life’s changing, absurd, and meaningless aspects, then transmute that chaos into personal meaning. Instead of waiting for external certainty, people should rely on themselves, treat truth as something they deem and carry out experimentally through action, and build a life that feels worth enduring.

How does existentialism suggest people escape the pressure of “the right way to live”?

It argues that early life often presents only a couple of paths toward perfection and happiness, implying a shared standard. Existentialism counters that there are endless ways to live, each individually determined. Accepting the lack of fundamental rules reduces the need to conform to parents, friends, teachers, religions, or cultures. People can then look inward, choose how they want to experience life, and mold their choices accordingly.

Review Questions

How does the transcript connect conflicting online advice to a cycle of second-guessing and eroded trust?
Explain the difference between searching for universal truth and creating personal meaning through choices, using Sartre’s “existence precedes essence” framework.
What does existentialism suggest people do when they cannot know whether their choices are “right” in advance?

Key Points

1
The internet can intensify anxiety by making contradictory guidance about life constantly visible, preventing stable decision-making.
2
Sartre’s existentialism holds that humans have no predetermined purpose; meaning and direction arise from choices and actions.
3
Freedom in existentialism is inseparable from responsibility, because people cannot reliably know whether their decisions are “good” or “right.”
4
No single religion, philosophy, science, government, or self-help system can provide a timeless answer that removes uncertainty for everyone.
5
Instead of expecting ultimate certainty, existentialism recommends skepticism toward advice and lower expectations of final, universal prescriptions.
6
A practical response is to accept life’s absurdity and create personal meaning through lived experience and experimentation.
7
Reducing pressure to conform comes from recognizing there are endless ways to live, not one shared path toward perfection.

Highlights

Existentialism treats uncertainty as a condition of life, not a defect to fix—meaning is made through action, not found as a universal rule.

Sartre’s “condemned to be free” frames anxiety as the cost of responsibility without guaranteed moral certainty.

The internet magnifies existential tension by turning contradiction into a constant background noise rather than a rare disagreement.

Instead of chasing “the right way,” existentialism urges people to mold themselves and their choices into a personally meaningful life.

Topics

Existentialism
Internet Anxiety
Jean-Paul Sartre
Freedom and Responsibility
Meaning Making

Mentioned

Jean-Paul Sartre