The Impacts of Digital Media on Empathy

What is empathy? It explores the talent to consider and assess another’s feelings and behavior, to have an intellect of understanding the individuality, to recognize and predict other’s thoughts and emotions. It has certain types like self-empathy, cognitive empathy; affective empathy, imaginative empathy, and empathic concern. When digital media is involved in the empathy, a new term “Digital Empathy” arises. My goal in this paper is to study the impacts of digital media on empathy and evaluate the results and consider certain sources.

The Structure of the Paper

To achieve my objective I have divided my paper into two parts initially. In the first part, the introduction of the problem and comparing the sources and the second part consist of the thesis.

The Role of Social Media in Modern Life

Today, in the computerized age, online networking is a gigantic piece of our regular daily existences. There are huge amounts of cases where individuals are utilizing their skills via online life. In any case, there are some in which web-based social networking has played a critical part in demolishing one's professional and personal life as well. This trend is dangerous and it is viewed as the open disgrace. The individual contemplations and state of mind of the general population communicated in advanced media might be not quite the same as those communicated at the time. While there are situations whereIndividuals show uncommon demonstrations of benevolence, more often than not individuals in online networking have a tendency to be snider.

The Anonymity Factor

Obscurity in digital life grants individuals to have another personality, which liberates them to express antagonistic vibe and feedback i.e. trolls, because of this reason people involved in internet-based life can dodge the reaction of online talks. The absence of eye to eye contact enables individuals to maintain a strategic distance from any sort of non-verbal. Compassion in the digital age is turning into a mainstream subject nowadays and there are increasingly insightful and non-academic articles committed to the theme. In the New York Times article written by Sherry Turkle, the same exact problem was reviewed with facts and figures.

The Impact on Interpersonal Communication

Mobile Phones are now the most common medium involved in digital life. The young generation is using it when they want to be both with their friends and, as some put it, “elsewhere" that is causing lack of empathy due to lack of face-to-face connection. By Pew Research Centre, about 82 percent of adults felt that the way they used their phones in social settings hurt conversation. Conversations solve problems; when you are not giving attention to another person’s feelings you directly or indirectly hurt sentiments and that is the lack of empathy Turkle reviewed in her article.

Confirmation Bias in Digital Interactions

The limitations made by digital life is affirmation tendency. Confirmation bias indicates that individual is just presenting himself to his own particular musings rehashed in recursive resound assemblies of progressively radical and exclusionary thought. Along these lines we can comprehend and feel for general population who concur with us however with regards to individuals who differ or "out-gathering" we get ourselves unfit to sympathize; very ready to disparage. The antagonistic consideration is troll posts creating havoc in many people’s lives.

The Changing Nature of Human Relationships

In another article “When Your Smartphone Is Too Smart for Your Own Good: How Social Media Alters Human Relationships” written by Wagner states that Human beings are social animals who cannot live alone; they need constant communication. Human beings are neurologically attuned to be social creatures. Digital Media cannot be solemnly blamed for lack of attention in modern age; in fact, in some cases it brings us together i.e., updating statuses rather than meeting for coffee; this does not mean that human beings are less social; it means that people are getting to know daily activities of others while getting attention they require.

A Balancing Perspective

Studies show that people are becoming more social nowadays than ever before but Wagner and Turkle intersect each other on one point: lack of personal connection is downside of Digital Media life—for example, if digital medium is involved it will eradicate intimacy in a wife-husband relationship.

The Decline of Intimacy

The role of five senses in a relation is declining; for example, a wife could not hear pain or humiliation beneath anger in her voice over Facebook chat but Wagner is not that worried about havoc created by digital social mediums as he quotes Dreikurs that perfection in relationships is unattainable, so it is better to have honesty—to have courage—to risk imperfection than live a lie.

Digital Media is responsible for lack of empathy. It has created more gaps than bridges. Yes, it has many advantages but when it comes to direct connection it has minimized roles of human senses which are responsible for building empathy.