Is the Internet killing our sense of EMPATHY?

brotherdan

What do you think? This is a pretty interesting article on cnn. I can see how we are being desensitized to others feelings. There are things that I've said to others online that I NEVER would say to someone face to face. What do all of you think?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/18/small.vorgan.internet.empathy/index.html?hpt=C2

"A TV news reporter for a Los Angeles station was doing an on-camera report on the Grammy Awards Sunday night, and suddenly her speech became garbled. Was she having a stroke on the air?"

"The video went viral on the internet. At the UK Telegraph website, where we caught up with the video showing her sudden slurred speech, 9,388 people noted they "liked" the video with a thumbs up signal and 6,027 recommended it to Facebook friends."

alanv

I find it good to post online as I have more time to think what I want to say. Sometimes on the phone or face to face it is easy to blurt out something that I later MAY regret.

For instance I just emailed a friend to say how sorry I was that her brother had just died. I was able to say exactly what I wanted to her rather than saying something inapproriate in a face to face or on the phone.

bohm

aw shut up!

brotherdan

I thought that this comment by the articles writer was profound:

Curiosity is human -- our brains constantly seek novelty and stimulation from both positive and negative sources. But empathy is human, too. Noticing your first response and trying to get some perspective on it is one strategy to push back technology's assault on our brain's ability to feel compassion for others. When our brains become wired to disassociate from unpleasant experiences, we lose a part of what defines our humanity.

I know that I am detatched when watching certain videos of real events. I've been known to enjoy the occasional "Worlds wildest crashes" on TV. Thinking about it, most of those situations were horrible experiences for the people involved. But sometimes we find our selves laughing or at least glued to the tv watching these "exciting" things take place.

Youtube is full of compilations of accidents and people getting hurt. Have we lost our empathy for people when viewing a video of them? It's giving me alot to think about.

Finally-Free

I lost my sense of empathy long before I heard of the internet. It happened shortly after I joined the JWs.

W

brotherdan

I like the definition of empathy: "Your pain in my heart." I think we as a society have forgotten how to do that in a huge way.

miseryloveselders

I don't think our sense of empathy is diminishing because of the internet. I think the internet just provides another mirror that exposes the flaws and dirty things we'd all like to think we're better than. Consider racism, and prejudice. We'd love to think we're beyond that in this country, and to be sure we have made some strides. However, go to Google, and then type "Why do black people", or "Why do white people", and watch how it automatically populates various inappropriate things we'd never venture say out loud unless around like minded people. I think society in general various pockets of people lacking empathy and genuine feeling. Where's the love, I guess.

As far as that reporter who had the migraine that everyone thought was a stroke, people have been entertained by videos like that for years. The internet just provides easier access to that kind of entertainment. Back in the day there was the Christine Chubbuck video, and the Faces Of Death series which you could find in any local video store. Nowadays with the advances in media, we have access to those kinds of videos all the time, in real time.

VampireDCLXV

Anybody here surf YouTube much? The comments people make about the videos sometimes make me doubt humanity.

It amazes me to see the crudeness, rudeness and outright vulgarities that people write because they dislike the video or what other people say about it (nevermind the grammar and spelling. UGH!). Yep, things that people would seldom express to others IRL. I guess it's probably the case that many young folks today spend more time behind the keyboard than they do with real people and thus can't understand the social graces previous generations have known and embraced, such as TACT.

I see it here too. Things have been said here that would make me want to tear somebody's throat out if they were said to my face! I ocasionally have been guilty of it too. I just don't know what things are coming to...

V665 V665

brotherdan

I agree that the attitudes have been around forever, misery. But the internet has changed things. You could go watch a faces of death video and be disturbed about it or enjoy it (gross). But it wasn't a daily occurance. Now EVERYTHING is on demand. If I want to see Bill Dwyers horrible suicide, I could find it in a second. I could even put a tribute site up and talk about how much I liked it. No one should ever view that video. Horrible horrible horrible.

Even though the interest in bloodshed and violence has always lived in the dark parts of peoples minds, the constant use of the internet for all of us gives us the ability to affect ourselves greater than ever before. Will the lack of empathy that we show on the internet eventually cross over and cause us to lack empathy in our everyday lives? Are we going to feel justified in going up to people and calling them idiots and laughing if someone gets killed in front of us?

The future seems pretty bleak when you think about it that way.

mamalove

No I don't. I think it is just the inborn personalities.

Is the Internet killing our sense of EMPATHY?

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