A study by the University of Michigan revealed that, due to social media use, adolescents are less empathetic than adolescents 40 years ago.
Stephen Campbell, associate professor in the Center for Psychological Studies, said that it is hard to generalize results regarding empathy. However, he said that an increase in self-centeredness among students could lead to a decrease in empathy.
“[The social media] means less personal contact with people, which means less opportunity to show empathy,” he said.
The study defined empathy as the “tendency to react to others’ experiences,” and some students agreed that their peers show it less.
“I think students cared more before,” said Glanel Reyes, first-year school psychology student. “Nowadays, students care but just not enough to join a cause or do anything about it.”
There are other students who agree that today’s generation is less empathetic, but attribute it to the home environment.
“I think it depends on the person and the environment where they were raised. Some people come from caring homes and others don’t,” said Joseph Young, freshman biology major.
Others do not think there was a decrease at all, but that students today show empathy using different media.
“Our society has taught us to use more electronic devices like cell phones and Facebook, but that doesn’t mean we’re less empathetic than they were just because they didn’t have Facebook. We just have our own way of communicating it,” said Wilber Leon, freshman biology major.
However, Campbell said communicating through these media is not enough to show empathy.
“It depends on how you define empathy but it has to be a more caring respect than a phone call,” said Campbell. “There is nothing more meaningful than looking someone in the eyes. It is priceless.”
Campbell said that society will adapt to the changes in communication but that adaptation may not be a good thing.
“I think we don’t want a society where people don’t care about each other and do things only because they are politically correct. I think that is what is happening now. People are just doing things because it is politically correct and not because they care,” he said.
