Is Social Media Creating an Empathy Deficit?

A study released earlier this summer out of the University of Michigan, shows college students today have 40 percent less empathy compared to college students 20 to 30 years ago. Here we go again – broad assertions that Generation Y or the Millennials are less empathetic and more self centered than generations before us.  According to Sara Konrath, one of the study’s researchers, “Many people see the current group of college students—as one of the most self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident, and individualistic in recent history.” We could sit and challenge some of these stark generalizations – let’s face it, 20-30 years ago it was the 1980’s – not exactly the most altruistic decade, but I digress.

Today’s Millennials are volunteering at rates higher than generations before them.  They are joining together on land and online to raise money and awareness for causes they care about – from the earthquake in Haiti or the floods in Nashville to name a few recent examples.  They are at the forefront of developing new innovations that are solving some of our worlds toughest social problems, like the fellows I recently came across through the Unreasonable Institute. And, let’s not forget, some of the defining events of our young lives that have forever changed who we are (and I’d argue made us more empathetic) – Columbine, Oklahoma City, September 11, and Hurricane Katrina amongst others.  But rather than look at these life changing events that brought us closer together as a country and as a generation – the study suggests several factors that are behind the apparent reduction in empathy – in particular, increased exposure to violent media content, and of course, the overall use of social media.

Blaming social media somehow presumes that online relationships don’t require empathy, patience, or deep connectedness – and while it may be easier to have so-called ‘friends’ online, including those whom you never met or rarely talk to in real life, this presupposes that online relationships don’t take care and feeding. “The ease of having ‘friends’ online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don’t feel like responding to others’ problems, a behavior that could carry over offline,” Science Daily quoted U-M graduate student Edward O’Brien, who along with U-M researcher Sara Konrath and undergraduate student Courtney Hsing conducted the analysis, combining the results of 72 studies of American college students conducted between 1979 and 2009.  In my world, much of which is lived online – ‘virtual’ friends certainly don’t replace the need for real tried and true friendships.

If you want to truly establish a connection with another person, empathy is essential.  I guess the question for researchers (and for us) is, are we able to move beyond showing our compassion to others through the click of a button? On the one hand, there is something convenient about clicking a button that brings us into contact with a person (and this is certainly not limited to Gen Y). But on the other hand, perhaps the ease and convenience has disconnected us from the process of relationship making. Has all of this technology actually disconnected us from the process of getting to know one another, sharing life’s little secrets, and replaced it with measuring number of followers or retweets?

We should constantly be refining our skills to ensure our ability to remain empathetic – and I would love to find ways that social media can actually help enhance this. Are there new processes via technology whereby empathy can actually be developed or enhanced? Is this really just a “problem with kids today” or is this lack of empathy something that older generations -- especially those who live and work in the new social media culture are likely to be experiencing as well. Sometimes we are so caught up in blaming the kids and their technology, that we fail to notice the larger societal trends.

What do you think, is empathy on the decline – and is social media to blame?

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