Exercising Empathy in the Age of Crisis
derrick chauvin’s knee
killed george floyd
because the officer was not concerned
with hurting another human being
but rather just doing his job
although floyd yelled i can’t breathe
the officer simply ignored his cries for
help
meanwhile the world watched
some empathized but others just
categorized floyd
as a criminal
this action demonstrates that we’re in a
crisis
okay okay it’s 2021 and i know everyone
thinks i’m talking about a global
pandemic here
but no i’m talking about an empathy
crisis
and the 280 characters on twitter
and the willful thoughtlessness help
contribute to this deficit
marshall mcluhan states that the medium
is the message
well our messages today depict a lack
of empathy let’s take a look at a few
tweets
elon musk pronouns suck
donald j trump i won’t let those thugs
dishonor the memory of george floyd
regardless of your political or
ideological ideological beliefs
this demonstrates a lack of cultural
competency
and empathy
i’m a professor in the department of
communication at valparaiso university
and in my classes we talk a lot about
media race class
culture and yes communication so let’s
get at the heart of communication
conversation
benjamin barber states that conversation
is the basic
act of civility however
we’re not practicing this civility here
what are we doing
we’re lacking empathy
and the internet more than any other
medium has significantly
impacted this empathy
chenis de rosta state that the internet
is the new public sphere where people
can voice their opinions
this is true however
we’re missing a key component here
empathy
so what is empathy
according to philosophers and scientists
there are three types of empathy
emotional contagion mentalizing
and empathetic concern and all three
types are extremely important
so what is emotional contagion
emotional contagion is that feeling it’s
the mirror effect of empathy
so let’s just imagine your friend tells
you
that their parents died of covert 19.
what would you do
you would feel that person’s pain
next is mentalizing this is kind of
the mind reading so this is when you’re
putting yourself
in someone else’s shoes
the next type of empathy is empathetic
concern
and this is the action this is the
motivation to do
good so for example when you want to
help your friend and you tell your
friends something
that’s the action behind it it’s part of
a buddhist philosophy
the karuna but all three types of
empathy are extremely important
why because they promote kindness
and they help us celebrate empathy
and hopefully we won’t have this crisis
so now i’ve talked about empathy and
what it is but what is its relationship
to technology
okay so earlier i mentioned benjamin
barber and the basic act of civility
so we talk about technology and civility
more than any other medium
the internet has profoundly influenced
the production
and reproduction of conversations
in 2009 there was a study done
and because of the internet empathy
scores have
decreased while self-promotion
has increased and guess what
the internet has something to do with it
according to a 2020
fast company article facebook youtube
and twitter
lack empathy and here’s why
they’re in their echo chambers they
don’t really listen to what everyday
people think they only know what people
in tech
or in communication think
number two they operate in grand
principles
all talk and no action
they value individualism and hard work
what makes it extremely difficult
to promote empathy
however let’s face it technology is real
life
you see me right now so that’s why
empathy is so important
empathy holds us together as a society
because of the internet we’re more
intertwined than we ever have been
before
globalization and tv
they affect us and guess what we
were successful as humans because we
practice empathy
but that didn’t happen
when george floyd was killed
chauvin was not able to put himself
in another person’s shoes
but this speaks more to our society
than it actually does to chauvin
and his personal actions because we gain
our world
views and how we see the world from
society
and social media whether they’ve done it
consciously
or unconsciously specifically user
generated
has invoked this crisis
media’s pervasiveness has been seen not
only
in 2020 but it’s been seen in history
for example rwanda
the holocaust united states hate crimes
and the u.s insurrection
okay so now i’ve given you all the bad
news
i promise there’s something good here
media and user generated content can
also
heighten empathy
so i know some people think that empathy
is like a superpower something that
it’s born with but according to jamil
ziki and carolyn callaway thomas
you can build your empathy like a
superpower
like eating well like exercise so you
can learn it too
so let me go ahead and tell you how you
can bridge that gap although my list is
not extensive
here are three things that you can think
about to build
empathy on and offline
first of all imagine a friend is a
stranger
if your friend tells you that they
cheated on their significant other
you once say you’re a terrible and bad
person
you would ask why i encourage you to do
the same
with a stranger on line
number two be mindful that humans are
complicated
and complex our race our class our
gender
our economic status
all shape our identities so often
we hear people say all white people are
all black people are or all lat x people
are i know this is an easy thing to say
but allow a human to be themselves
allow someone to surprise you i know
it’s easier to hang out with somebody
who looks like you but i
ask you to step back and enjoy
the complexities of human beings
and my final point use
empathetic language so you can be the
bridge
so when you’re in opposition don’t point
fingers
instead ask questions
why would you think that when you’re
doing that you’re actually practicing
what we call empathetic concern
so the next time you send a tweet
or you’re in a face-to-face conversation
i hope that you practice the empathetic
imperative
so you can be the bridge because
remember
we cannot not communicate