Reading Time: 5 minutesMany of us feel that modern society has become less kind, polite, and civil. How can we reverse this troubling trend? On today’s sow, we talk to a man who is leading the effort. Mark Lewis, an author and entrepreneur talks about the decline of common courtesy and morals, and how we can return to them. We talk modern technology, media, and upbringing.
You can also read his article on this topic below…
Speaking of articles, I also site an article on research that shows that doing good deeds for others can help our health.
Articles mentioned in this show
Doing good deeds reduces physical pain
Guest: Author, Entrepreneur, Mark S Lewis

* book: Give A Damn – The Ticket to Cultural Change

 
Kindness starts with one person
ARE WE LOSING EMPATHY? STUDIES SHOW NARCISSISM IS ON THE RISE
By Mark S. Lewis
First published November 8th, 2019
 
According to a 2010 study by the University of Michigan, today’s college students are not as empathetic as college students of the 1980s and ’90s.  Sara Konrath, a researcher at the U-M Institute for Social Research, explained the significance of the 30-year study which analyzed data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students. The results of the study were presented in Boston at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science.
“We found the biggest drop in empathy after the year 2000,” said Konrath, “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.”What has happened to our society over the past few decades? It seems to me that we used to care more about others. In the first decade of the 21st century, researchers began to observe signs that young people might have less empathy than in previous generations.”
Scholars have disagreed over the years on the best way to measure—or even define—empathy. Is it an intellectual activity or an emotional one? When we empathize with someone, are we taking on that person’s exact emotions, or are we just having sympathy for their emotional state? Or maybe, scholars speculated, we empathize to reduce our own stress about what other people are going through.
Regardless of how you define it, there were signs that the younger generation was heading in the wrong direction. Their analysis revealed that from 1979 to 2009, there was a significant decline in perspective-taking—in other words, considering things from another person’s perspective and have an empathic concern. These are the most central components of empathy and the loss of these traits was particularly sharp in the last decade covered by the review. The researchers speculated about why this trend was occurring. They pointed to a parallel rise in narcissism, meaning excessive or exotic interest in oneself and in one’s physical appearance. Narcissism is the polar opposite of  empathy.
It’s hard to maintain an excessive interest in your domain when you’re not able to share the perspective of other members of your herd. The researchers also saw some signs that violent acts, violent media, binge drinking, and bullying were on the rise. And they took note of societal changes in parenting and families.
Numerous things are going on in the world simultaneously that contribute to breeding the don’t Give a Damn attitude. Most interesting to me were the researchers’ observations of media and technology.
“Media consumption appears to be increasingly popular as technological developments continue to advance,” the analysts said.