The Empathy Deficit.
Now it is
time for me to play devil’s advocate. I understand that we as humans need human
interaction, and that we don’t want to live in a world without empathy, but
think about this. Could one not argue that we are already living in that world?
We have people who litter and even though there is evidence that global warming
is a thing, people seem to not take it as serious as others because they do not
see the immediate climate change. We
also see homeless men and women in the streets and they are ignored more times
than not because people think they can work to get money. We do not know the
circumstances and yet we walk right past them. This quote did catch my eye, “We typically don’t insult people to their faces,
Davis explained, in part because we know they’re not going to like how that
feels.” I get that and I would much rather tell someone I disagree over
text or through a third person because I am afraid of hurting their feelings.
It is also stated, “Those who score high in empathic concern, according to past
research, are more likely to return incorrect change to a cashier, let someone
else ahead of them in line, carry a stranger’s belongings, give money to a
homeless person, volunteer, donate to a charity, look after a friend’s pet or
plant, or even live on a vegetarian diet. And what’s alarming, Konrath said, is
that empathic concern has fallen more than any other aspect of empathy. Between
1979 and 2009, according to the new research, empathic concern dropped 48
percent.” Which is again is alarming.
The given reading known as "The Empathy Deficit" was one of my favorites of the week. I truly enjoyed reading into this topic as in my eyes I do not believe the empathy norm is appreciated enough. The writer does a fantastic job expressing the importance of empathy as well as discussed the given topic in a deeper manner. The world would be destroyed without this norm and after reading this you'd believe it too. I loved your interpretation of the reading as I thought it carried great points taken from the reading. Great job!
ReplyDeleteYou make a lot of great points that I hadn't even thought of before. I've been wondering what we do that makes us less empathic these days, but you have pointed out a lot of great examples. Important issues that surround us on a daily basis are ignored. People sometimes only focus on themselves and the problems they deal with within their own life, and no one else. But it makes me question why it has dropped down by 48 percent, because I feel as though issues like these were ignored years ago as well.
ReplyDeleteI learned about this is another class and it was astonishing to me. I could not believe that people has become so much less empathetic. I had learned that because children do not day dream as much and are constantly distracted that it links to empathy. I find this really sad and it makes me wonder that as technology begins to grow, how much less empathetic will people be i 20 years from now?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post, I had mixed feelings about what you wrote. I do think that the world today is in a bad place and people are selfish but I wouldn't say that its already a world without empathy. There are things we as humans do that are selfish to us because we don't want to hurt other peoples feelings, I agree with that. I don't think there is anything wrong with people who help out other people in everyday life, I think that is one of the most important parts about empathy. Letting someone ahead of line if they look busy or lending a hand if they look like they need it is not wrong. I agree with you its very alarming at how much empathic concern has fallen more than any other aspect of empathy. Overall, great post I liked the contrasting ideas.
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