We're Becoming A Nation of Jerks

[Trifoilum]

I've had this argument before and I don't have the will to completely create my argument again but I would like to point out the wording of the article: the whole result of the study is based upon people judging their own empathy skills. Personally, I believe that empathy for the random stranger is decreasing (For various reasons, one of the bigger reasons that people think they can't change certain things they are aware of. Example, violence in third world countries) and that the overall number of friends a individual has is decreasing as well, but the individual's level of empathy is relatively similar in the last couple of decades. It's also hard to pin-point how empathetic a person is, we're shown small acts of empathy and then large ones as well, it could make your own contribution seems fairly generic and non-important thus a lower rating of yourself.

Good point.

Also, as a commenter on the NYMag site had said; all the research were apparently done on college students? How much college students have developed sufficient empathy -AND- self confidence to measure it and freeing themselves from any biases that they have too much / too little empathy?

I don't see both researches are contradicting / nullifying each other, though; people might have developed empathy since birth but it got toned down and repressed by years and years of social conditioning, or vice versa.

They may be related, but I don't think they have to be necessarily correlated.

 

[aeon]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Attributed to Socrates by Plato, according to William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953).

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Same as it ever was.


cheers,
Ian

 

[the]

An individual

 

[randomsomeone]

I blame Burger King. "Have it your way" has now become a national anthem. Used to be you got what you were given and were darn glad of it. Now it is all about us and our precious wants. And it ain't about just burgers anymore either.

 

[jn56uytrx]

I blame Burger King. "Have it your way" has now become a national anthem. Used to be you got what you were given and were darn glad of it. Now it is all about us and our precious wants. And it ain't about just burgers anymore either.

When my oldest son was in preschool his teacher made a big point of teaching them "you get what you get". It seemed to stick.

 

[Nixie]

There was also the movement in the eighties where "everybody is a winner" seemed to be the fancy of the day for teachers. I saw the "nobody loses" mentality when my younger siblings were in grade school. At the time, I commented that it would impede the development of children learning how to handle disappointment and that not all competition was bad. I think this kind of self-gratification is dangerous because it makes children unrealistic in their understanding of the world because life is hard and you need to learn coping skills.

 

[88chaz88]

I blame Burger King. "Have it your way" has now become a national anthem. Used to be you got what you were given and were darn glad of it. Now it is all about us and our precious wants. And it ain't about just burgers anymore either.

 

[Cecilff2]

The everyone is a winner mentality screws kids up. Not only do you fail to learn coping mechanisms, but if you still "win" no matter what, why should you do anything? What's your motivation?

 

[Billy]

"self reported empathy" since the 80s has declined and that makes us bigger jerks then when we used to enslave other human beings and force them into free labor? ummm...

 

[Lucidmoon]

Okay, it's not my country per se; it's US. But it's the title of the news I'd just read.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/12/empathy.html#comments


And the aforementioned article : http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-me-care

What do you guys think?

I think Facebook is to blame.