Why We No Longer Feel Wonder (It's Not Your Phone)
🔍 Key insights
Awe isn’t gone, it’s just buried beneath adult perception – I explore how we don't lose awe with age, but rather crowd it out with distraction, utility, and over-analysis.
Phones aren’t the core issue – I used to blame my devices, but awe didn’t return even when I turned them off. The problem runs deeper, into how we’ve trained our minds to interpret the world.
Philosophy as a way back – When I revisit the world through philosophical wonder, even the familiar becomes strange, and awe quietly returns.
📚 Go deeper
🎥 Related videos:
Let's talk about "Awe" by ASU Department of Psychology – Professor Lani Shiota shares how awe is involved in her research
Dacher Keltner: Why Awe Is Such an Important Emotion – Unpacks the biological and psychological roots of awe and why it matters
The Amazing Power of Awe | Jonah Paquette | TEDxSonomaCounty – Jonah Paquette explains how the science of awe can boost our well-being and deepen your connection to life.
📖 Further reading:
The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram – A poetic, philosophical look at how language and abstraction shifted how we relate to the natural world.
Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder by Dacher Keltner – A research-backed book that explains how awe impacts our biology, decision-making, and connection to others.
💡 Think for Yourself
When was the last time you felt genuine awe without needing to explain it, capture it, or share it?
What routines, habits, or mental filters might be dulling your sensitivity to wonder?
☁️ Thought Experiment
Imagine waking up on a strange planet — with no memory, no language, and no way to measure time. Every sight is unfamiliar. Every sound, raw and new. Would a leaf astonish you again?
Cheers,
Kevin