We live in an age of instant connection, yet genuine understanding feels more distant than ever. Surrounded by constant updates and opinions, we live in a world where outrage trends faster than compassion, and empathy has quietly slipped into the background of our daily lives.
One of, if not the biggest contributor to this widespread phenomenon is the boom of social media in the public eye, particularly dating back to the COVID period almost six years ago. With nowhere to be but inside, our lives revolved around technology, either working at home, or by using social media to escape the monotony of the lockdown.
Mixing the boring lifestyle of staying inside all of the time, along with the negative effects of instant gratification, a recipe for disaster grew into a dependence on negativity. News outlets specifically thrive on negative news, as it draws in more attention, to the detriment of the people consuming that content. All this does is lead to a cycle of more and more outrage, with less positive news reaching the general populous.
This has led to the commonly known habit of “doomscrolling,” where users spend hours consuming negative news and content. According to a Morning Consult survey, an average 31% of adults regularly engage in doomscrolling, with higher rates in millenials, at 46%, and Gen Z at a whopping 53%. The constant negativity doesn’t stop at just our screens, it seeps into our daily lives.
This constant cycle of negativity wears down our mental health as we consume it. Gallup reported in a poll that less than half of Americans would consider themselves as thriving mentally. As our anxieties, stresses, and burnout all weigh heavy on us, our empathy and compassion are eroded away after time. All the effects of what we consume make it harder to be patient with others and imagine the hardships and difficulties others face in their daily lives. At the very least, it makes it more difficult to offer feelings of compassion that we can’t feel for ourselves. When we feel overwhelmed by the negativity that is pushed our way, we feel like we aren’t thriving, and we care less about the struggles of others.
This also spills out into how we view one another, preconceived notions taking over, so without even interacting with people we make judgments about them. According to a Pew Research Center poll, a miniscule 34% believe most people can be trusted. This number represents a big reason for the division of our modern society. When strangers automatically become enemies, there is no chance of understanding one another. Every disagreement twists itself into some kind of conflict, and a difference in opinion is a threat to the very belief system we subscribe to. No longer do people participate in an argument to learn something from an exchange, only wishing to prove themselves correct, creating even more conflict; not to mention the very misuse of the word argument, now being shorthand for a fight instead of a persuasive conversation in which both parties attempt to understand one another.
In a world where outrage circulates faster than understanding, the responsibility of listening and engaging with empathy falls onto us. The digital landscape does not have to be a place where we further divide ourselves; it can be a tool we use to connect and better understand one another. When we choose to show someone compassion rather than condemnation, we feel better as people, and we can show it is possible to contribute and thrive in a society where our understanding of each other outweighs our judgments. If we’re able to recognize the humanity in each other, we will be able to bridge the gap that isolates us from the people we are meant to live side by side with, before we collapse beneath the weight of our lack of empathy.
