1. Changes in the Sources of Meaning, Identity and Spirituality: Historically, sources of MPIS have related to and have their roots in relationships, family, gender, sexuality, culture, work, technology and community across the life cycle/span and across cultures. We will look at some of these briefly below, focusing on changes to these meaning sources:

a) Relationships: while meaning is unique to each of us- the result of our own personal journey- it is fundamentally about our relationship to ourselves, others and the wider cosmos. Social Networking research demonstrates the key to healthy functioning is a good support network, meaningful connections to other people and a broad sense of spirituality. Without meaningful relationships, research shows that a person is vulnerable to mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and suicide. With the pressures facing people in the world today, with work related pressures, and social media, meaningful connections are reducing. This impacts on a person's ability to make and sustain these relationships, across the life span.

The nature and function of human relationships, particularly for younger generations, across the world is changing dramatically with the emergence of social media platforms. While many young people have many social network connections, they appear to be more isolated and less connected in meaningful relationships.

b) Family: 'What families 'look like', how and when they form, what they do, how they feel, and the challenges they face, are in many ways, far different from the experiences of earlier generations'.(Meg Luxton, researcher, York University, Ontario. 2011 study Changing Families. New Understandings)

There are a variety of reasons for this:

• Divorce is now more common-33% of first marriages end in divorce and 16% of those who then remarry, divorce.
• 1.64 million families in Canada are single parent families.
• 77,880 same-sex couples lived in Canada in 2017, 24,370 of them were married. This is three times the number of married same sex couples counted in 2006. Same sex couples in general grew in number by 61 per cent over the same period.
• In 2007 the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that more than two persons could be parent to a child- the biological mother and father and the mother's female partner or father's male partner.

Other factors that are also affecting the nature of families are the practice of parenting, the growing role of care givers and grandparents. There is a shift in family dynamics as a result of the nature of the changes in work, economic pressures, and developments in social media. Finding meaning through families is now more demanding than it once was. Both the young and the elderly have to work at being a family member, and find more of their own route, even though they may be unsure of how to do this task or how to sustain this task over time.

c) Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Inequalities: Western or developed nations have moved a long way from being 'male' or 'female' and towards a wider acceptance of the notion of gender identity based on personal decisions and orientation. The phrase 'LGBTQ' is not unfamiliar or unusual in developed or western nations. In 2014, Facebook ended a decade of only giving its users 'male' and 'female' options on its site by adding 71 gender identification terms- an update many saw as long overdue. For a young person, this is another difficult challenge for meaning-finding and meaning-making- 'which of the seventy-one gender terms do I identify with, and what happens if I change my mind?' It is captured in the debate about students in school who identify with a different gender from that with which they were born: which bathroom do they use? Many schools in Canada now have gender-neutral bathrooms. But the support for different gender identities has been a struggle (and continues to be a struggle,) especially in faith-based school systems and some public areas across the world. In other parts of the world such as the Emirates states, the Arab World, some parts of Asia and Africa, such gender identity issues are forbidden. A woman's place and role in some societies and faith systems, such as Islamic, and other areas of the world is still seen as insignificant and 'less than'/inferior. There are areas where women are forbidden to go. In other areas such as parts of Africa, for example in Cameroon, rape and genital mutilation of women in particular remain commonplace. Where women are forced to give birth to an unwanted child, this means that a number of children are born into this world with an immediate emotional, psychological and possibly physical disadvantage.

These gender and sexuality issues will impact greatly on all of our sense of self, our identity and our spiritual self.

d) Culture: Many countries across the world host festivals for food, music, and culture each year. Edmonton, in Canada, Wells and Glastonbury in the UK, for example, host the Heritage and Food and Wine Festivals, in which the music and food from over one hundred countries provides the basis for a public celebration of identity and meaning, symbolized by dress, music, art and food.

Many nations are comprised of different ethnicities. In a major study of Canada in particular, from Victoria University by Schimmele and Wu (2015) of ethnic identity, especially of immigrants they observe the following:

• The ethnic/social identities of immigrants develop through their interactions with members of the host community. When these interactions are positive, immigrants tend to assimilate or integrate. When negative, immigrants feel marginalized or develop radicalized identities that associate with ethnic balkanization, and intergroup conflict, which can escalate to government extremism such as ethnic cleansing, witnessed recently with the Rohingha people forced to flee their homeland.
• First-generation immigrants tend to prefer national-origin identities (e.g., Chinese), while their children tend to adopt hyphenated (e.g., Chinese-Canadian) identities. This suggests the acculturation of immigrants is an intergenerational process.
• For both first and second- generation immigrants, a national label remains important. Few second-generation immigrants are adopting a purely national identification (e.g., Canadian), which suggests that the process of acculturation is ongoing.
• Strong ethnic identities are not incompatible with a sense of belonging in countries such as Canada and the UK.
• Bicultural identities (e.g., Chinese-Canadian) are common among the second generation. There are two explanations for this pattern of self-identification. First, Canada's multi-cultural environment encourages the simultaneous retention of cultural distinctiveness and a sense of belonging to the host nation. Second, some racial minorities are hesitant to 'drop the hyphen' because of subtle perceptions of being less 'Canadian' than their White counterparts. UK has a similar phenomenon/pattern.
• A strong ethnic identity and a weak 'Canadian' identity do not necessarily imply a lack of incorporation. For some immigrants, identifying as 'Canadian' has little concrete meaning.
• The prospects for integration depend on socioeconomic mobility. Limited economic resources and opportunities tend to increase the likelihood of assimilation into an underclass and adoption of 'oppositional' identities. The experience of racism or discrimination discourages a sense of belonging to the host nation and local community. This experience can also lead to 'politicized' identities as immigrants.

In short, ethnic identity involves young people in particular and also older adults who have to adapt to these changes in making choices and determinations as to what components and aspects of their sense of self and meaning will be derived from which culture. How others react to these choices- parents, extended family, close friends and influencers-makes a difference to a person's sense of self, their identity, their purpose and meaning.

e) Work: Many of my generation, (and even more of the generation before mine) defined themselves in terms of their work, career and faith: my father was a German Jew, a child fleeing Germany/Pruschish Holland with his two brothers on the last kinder train to UK, at 8 years old, not speaking a word of English at that time. He was taken in and looked after by English guardians until he was of an age where he could work. He studied at night school, became an engineer and went on to become a Works Director of a steel business company 'Metalrax', making and supplying Rolls Royce components and fire extinguishers. This work and his family gave his life meaning. He successfully retired by devoting his life to my step-mother, dancing and taking a keen interest in investing in the stock market. My grandfather on my mother's side was initially a shoe-maker in Birmingham after the war, making shoes for children who had no money for shoes, having flown rescue planes in World War Two. He was an entrepreneur, became a businessman and co-owned a business for many years. He was musical and loved to play the piano by ear. When he retired later in life, this was a key passion for him and one of the aspects of how he retained his sense of meaning and identity. Work occupies a great deal of the time and energy in our lives, to the point at which many define themselves by the work they do. In a Globe and Mail poll of over 12,000 people, a third said that their personal identity is defined by their career and that the loss of their job had a profound impact on their sense of self.

Dennis Marsden and Euan Duff in their book Workless: Some Unemployed Men and Their Families look at the impact of job loss on a persons' sense of self, meaning and purpose. They look at the implicit contract between workers and their employees: in exchange for their labour and skills, employers not only pay them, but support the sense of identity and reinforce their roles daily in the workplace and in the community. Work provides structure, meaning, shapes leisure and family, and creates a sense of certainty. When a person is unemployed, the implicit contract is broken. No longer does a person have shape in their life, no longer do they have tasks with meaning, they have to create and recreate their sense of who they are. This has significant consequences for health and mental health (Murgatroyd and Wolfe, 1982).

In most of the developed world, youth unemployment is higher than overall unemployment. In Canada, for example, youth unemployment (those aged 15-24) is stubbornly stable at 11.5% of the age cohort- this despite record levels of employment. In other parts of the developed world- Spain and Italy, for example- the figures are much higher at 43%. For the Euro-area as a whole, the figure is 18.9%.

Youth unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, has a profound effect on health, a sense of identity, the development and formation of relationships and social interaction generally. Young people unemployed for two years or more report significant senses of loss of meaning, purpose and shape to their lives. Despite many being well educated (including some individuals holding graduate degrees), they turn to other activities to give them meaning- crime, drugs, sex, deviance. Finding work that pays money but brings no satisfaction or meaningful sense of identity also just reinforces questions in the mind of young people about their worth and the meaning for life.

f) Community: Aaron Williamson, a consultant in Toronto, recently published a fascinating model of the community aspects of identity as the first step towards developing a theory of community formation. He recognizes that 'a community or potential community is a complex system' and that 'community itself is an emergent quality--community, per se, does not exist; it is a perceived connection between a group of people based on overlaps of intent, identity, interest and experience'. Where there are strong 'overlaps' between these aspects of self among members of a group, that group will emerge to be a community:

• If the overlap is mainly common interests, it will emerge as a Community of Interest. Learning and recreational communities are often of this type.
• If the overlap is mainly common capacities, it will emerge as a Community of Practice. Co- workers, collaborators and alumni are often of this type.
• If the overlap is common intent, it will emerge as a Movement. Project teams, eco-villages and activist groups are often of this type.
• If the overlap is common identity, it will emerge as a Tribe. Partnerships, love/family, relationships, gangs and cohabitants are often of this type.

David Pollard has developed this further by suggesting that identity is strongly linked to interest, intent, capacity, action and learning. Also important is the affinity with others and social connections. He shares a 'map of meaning' given to a person by a variety of domains in their life:

g) Spirituality: Many people have lost their sense of our spirituality and are disconnected from the wise and knowing part of ourselves, our inherent wisdom. Recent conflicts, particularly evident in the name of religion and 'Jihad' in the Islamic world, and longstanding ones between Palestinians and Jews, demonstrate our need as human beings to look at new ways to find resolution and tolerance worldwide, without erupt into war or racial conflicts. The United Nations was established to address this as one of its key pillars. Throughout history we have struggled to find a common parlance spiritually that leads to peaceful existence together as human beings. Religion (as opposed to spirituality) has divided the world, rather than look for what connects us. The meaning and purpose of our lives are impacted by these holy conflicts that lead to wars and destruction for young and old alike.

More recently the Buddhist, Christian and Catholic worlds have been shaken by sexual, physical and emotional abuse that has been kept hidden by their leadership teams. This is impacting on followers' sense of themselves and the meaning given to Buddhism, Christianity, Catholicism and Islam. It has caused deep questioning amongst some of the members of the faith traditions. For some it has shaken their sense of meaning and purpose, their identity and of course their spiritual path.

Religion, as opposed to spirituality and spiritual principles as taught in schools and communities, can lead to a limited understanding of our spiritual nature.

h) Technology: Many young people turn to Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and WhatsApp to connect and engage with others. Indeed, many are now addicted to these technologies. They see 'relationships', 'likes' and 'shares' as statements about their identity and responses as either acceptance or rejection of the identity and persona they are working to create online.

Social media is problematic as a means for developing identity, as a large number of researchers are observing. Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, has argued that the smartphones were one of the most likely major causes behind sudden increases in mental health issues amongst teens after 2012, reflecting the use of these devices for social media conversations. She documents features of "iGen" in her 2017 book. Born after 1995, iGen is the first generation to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. With the social media and texting replacing other activities, iGen spend less time with their friends in person -- perhaps one of the reasons they are experiencing unprecedented levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness.

However, technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them: they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen year olds used to. They find their sense of meaning and identity more elusive and impermanent.

The Search for Meaning for the next generation of young people: We end this section where we began-- young people are searching for meaning and seek to understand the true nature of themselves, who they are, and the meaning of their lives in context. Many of the frameworks, however, which enabled their parents and grandparents to find meaning, are more fragile and more complex for the current generation of young people than they were for previous generations. Worldwide they are struggling for a sense of themselves and how to navigate these complexities before them. They are seeking meaning and a sense of purpose in new ways, but often fail to find it.