Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
addressing these deep human longings
English answer:
addressing these profound human desires
English term
21 books translated
Native in: Russian 
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, Spanish to Russian, and 1 more.
addressing these deep human longings
From the book Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised that when I asked Surgeon General Murthy what was the biggest disease in America today, without hesita-tion he answered: “It’s not cancer. It’s not heart disease. It’s isolation. It is the pronounced isolation that so many people are experiencing that is the great pathology of our lives today.” How ironic. We are the most technologically connected generation in human history—and yet more people feel more isolated than ever. This only reinforces Murthy’s earlier point—that the connections that matter most, and are in most short supply today, are the human-to-human ones.
Don’t get me wrong: technology has so much to offer to make us more productive, healthier, more learned, and more secure. I am awed by the intelligent assistance I discovered in researching this book and the potential it has to lift so many people out of poverty and discover talent and make it possible for us to actually fix everything. I am hardly a technophobe. But we will get the best of these technologies only if we don’t let them distract us from making these deep human connections, ***addressing these deep human longings***, and inspiring these deep human energies. And whether we do that depends on all that stuff you can’t download—the high five from a coach, the praise from a mentor, the hug from a friend, the hand up from a neighbor, the handshake from a rival, the totally unsolicited gesture of kindness from the stranger, the smell of a garden and not the cold stare of a wall.
The phrase "addressing these deep human longings" sounds very vague and obscure to me. Does it mean (in simpler words and style) satisfynig/performing the wish of people to communicate as humans in a warm, friendnly, old-fashioned way (old-fashioned in a good sense, of course) without all these technological devices?
I also asked this question on Wordreference forum, but, unfortunately, no answers so far.
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/addressing-these-dee...
Thank you.
Sep 1, 2019 21:48: B D Finch Created KOG entry
Sep 13, 2019 13:56: Yvonne Gallagher changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Jennifer Caisley, GILLES MEUNIER, Yvonne Gallagher
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Responses
addressing these profound human desires
You write "sounds very vague and obscure to me. Does it mean (in simpler words and style) satisfynig/performing the wish of people to communicate as humans in a warm, friendnly, old-fashioned way (old-fashioned in a good sense, of course) without all these technological devices?"
No, it is not vague and obscure, and it by trying to simplify it you are distorting the meaning from something psychological and philosophical to something material and from a general principle to particular manifestations. The phrase is saying that there is a deep human longing for direct, peronal human-to-human communication.
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Note added at 4 hrs (2019-08-31 21:34:39 GMT)
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It has been pointed out that I didn't explain the word "addressing". "Addressing" means acknowledging and/or responding to an issue.
Portugal
Human Sciences and Arts specialist, Ma
Native in: Portuguese (Variant: European/Portugal)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Spanish to Portuguese, French to Portuguese, and 3 more.
adressing this profound human need
Never the less, we could paraphrase it:
... this profound human need ... Meaning the need for others, the need for touch (and fulfilling the senses), the need to be in touch with others and the world - something which (in this case) technology seem to hinder.
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