by Angelito » Sun Mar 08, 2020 8:25 am
LMAO wrote:Angelito wrote:
What do you guys think of this observation?
Rise of the digital age and increasing urbanization.
Sure, we can see what's going on around the world at a moment's notice, but we're separated by screens which takes away in-person human interaction and can create social isolation.
As for cities, it's easy to live in a city and be surrounded by strangers whom you share minimal contact with compared to living in a tight-knit community like a small town where everyone knows everyone and you're almost forced to interact with your neighbors. But even so, we see tragedies bringing people together all the time.
I wouldn't say being less empathetic is necessarily a bad thing or necessarily a good thing, it's just a different way of experiencing the current world.
I'd go as far back as the industrial revolution that really put individuality above communal good. Before that, humans needed each other to survive. No person, unless belonging to feudals or powers-that-be, had a chance to live the dream and become independently successful. That changed after the industrial revolution.
The digital age only exacerbated the underlying tendency whose seeds were planted after the industrial revolution. As cliched as it sounds, the world became a global village after the advent of electronic communication.
The speed at which individuality toppled the need to belong as part of whole skyrocketed during this age of information.
As for the effects spectrum, empathy is innately good. As a utility, do people need it today? I doubt it. Lack of empathy is why we are in this war of genders today. It's not explicit but it remains as an underlying current.
The exposure to heinous crimes and activities thanks to news and media is another reason why we've become insensitive too. Even 50 years ago, we needed people to live a fulfilling life. Today, do we? It's all become transactional. There are options—more than ever.
I believe the kids born after 2030 would have more empathy than kids born in the 2000s. Social media is in an experimental state right now. By 2030, it would have become neutralized and the norm. The 90s kids were born in the digital age, but before social media. The 2000 kids are born in the age of social media where communication has become a construct rather than a need.
It's interesting though.
The dynamic I find more interesting is the living room culture. There was a time when it was mandatory. Parents and children, even friends and relatives, found it an essential social activity. Today, the middle-class in most countries are in a mess. The rich is getting more rich than ever before and the middle-class is dying a slow death. Parents don't have time for their children. Children are busy with school and in social media. We've become detached from real connections and the real world. Today's problems are more existential in developed societies and more created through abundance. This might be a generalization. But I feel it's true.
Compromise has become economical and our behavior has an open-ended approach. It's the need of the hour I guess. Your ability in accounts has more value than your ability to empathize. And, if your have that ability (to empathize), it has to be monetized through a career path, or else nobody will take your seriously.
The culture where everyone is offended by everyone and everything someone says pronounces this age's consciousness. We don't try and understand for the sake of understanding. We understand for the return, the end goal. And that's the underlying "problem." The society is goal-oriented more than ever today.
I feel we're heading to a generational existential crisis. It's the cycle of life.