Mindfulness in Silicon Valley: Is Work Becoming Religion?

Silicon Valley appears to have created an elite within corporate America, one which has developed its own religion, co-opting mindfulness to suit its own purposes. Will workers continue to drink the Kool-Aid? Are we all buying into the religion that says Big Tech (and social media) will solve all our problems, thus disconnecting ourselves from more meaningful engagement with our neighbourhoods and communities?

Many tech workers feel fulfilled and “whole” because of work, others at the margins of the tech industry are living broken lives. There is a social cost to  “Techtopia,” a society where work is the highest form of fulfilment.

The problem with Techtopia is that work monopolizes the resources of a community—its time, energy, money, and devotion. As a result, people disinvest in other vital social institutions—families, faith communities, neighbourhoods, and political institutions. Work becomes the alpha institution, around which all other institutions must submit to.