Society's Empathy: Why Has It Lessened?

Society’s Empathy: Why has it Lessened?
In the article, “Measuring Empathy in the 21st Century: Development of an Empathy Index
Rooted in Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Social Justice”, doctors Karen E. Gerdes, Cynthia
A. Lietz, and Elizabeth A. Segal introduce the definition of empathy: “when we hear people speak or watch their posture, gestures, and facial expressions, the neural networks in our brains are stimulated by a ‘shared representation.’ The result is an inner reflection or simulation of the experiences of those whom we are observing”; numerous people have this and few do not.
However, it seems that in a subtle way, society has deeply buried empathetic emotions. Where has the empathy gone in this world? Has it disappeared forever?
We ponder on why this generation lacks empathy and concern for real life situations; however, the answer is right in front of our eyes. People are less empathetic to the struggles and strife of daily life due to the impact of noninterfacing relationships, the increase in crime rates, and the escalation of stress in our society.
Noninterfacing
relationships can interfere with a person’s empathetic emotions. The preponderance of people acknowledge this alleged fact; however, they do not seem to ask the question “why”. This issue is in fact quite intriguing. When people do not physically observe the person that they are talking with via messaging, texting, etcetera, they grow to be desensitized; thus, they no longer think of the person as a being, but as an electronic. It has been proven that a person can be trained to empathize with others, through interfacing. According to the article, “Interacting with a ComputerSimulated
Pet: Factors Influencing Children’s Humane
Attitudes and Empathy”, written by YuehFeng
Tsai, B.A. and David Kaufman, Ph.D.:
To develop both cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy, then, it is important to
Unfortunately, people do not realize how much they forgo when interacting with each other through electronic communication. “The ability to empathize with another individual has long been considered to have positive consequences for social interactions and relationships”, quoted doctors Tia M. Panfile and Deborah J. Laible in the article, “Attachment Security and Child’s
Empathy: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation”. If somebody were to text, “I am overly stressed”, the receiver of the content would not be aware of the individuals’ bloodshot eyes or the fact that they had been crying for the last hour. Their entire body could be shouting out general indications, but four simple words on a digital screen will not result in an empathetic response from the greater number of people. The majority of people must first feel before they can empathize; however, this is nearly an impossible task in noninterfacing relationships. We all recognize that crime rates are increasing; newscasts across the United States are blaring with school shootings, race riots, and horrific acts of violence. When people are