The Lack of Empathy

The introduction of accessible technology was a major turning point in society’s growing lack of empathy. Sherry Turkle, a world-renowned researcher from MIT, discusses in her Essay “The Empathy Diaries,” the ways in which technology is destructive to our culture and the ever-growing dangers it possesses. Since the late 20^th century, technology and ease of accessing technology have been expanding at a rapid pace, and with that increase, empathy in kids has been going down. When overused or used in incorrect ways, technology damages the way we can communicate with others by destroying our connection to the real world. This technology can be from our phones to our computers and has been damaging our mental connections with others for too long. If things do not change regarding the use of phones and technology with children, future generations will only succumb to the same lack of empathy that today’s children possess.

                In-person conversations are necessary for children to have so that they are ready for the real world. In the subheading “They Make Acquaintances, but Their Connections Seem Superficial” when discussing the connections that kids make with others, Turkle argues, “Time in simulation gets children ready for more time in simulation. Time with people teaches children how to be in a relationship, beginning with the ability to have a conversation” (Turkle 346). In this quote, we are told what the effects of high use of technology are. Turkle is saying that when these children are sitting around all day, responding to what a phone is telling them, they are losing that ability to converse with one another. Turkle further brings home this point by stating that “As middle schoolers began spending more time texting, they lost the practice in face-to-face talking” (346). I like what this quote is saying because it shows how this problem has real-world effects on these kids, and it is being very clearly observed by these teachers. These conversations with technology also hurt us when it comes to the responses, they require kids to give them. Turkle talks about how these conversations with computers do not need certain responses, “Real people demand responses to what they are feeling. And not just any response” (346). Turkle is saying that these connections made with technology are not real connections like those with people who require responses to how they are feeling. I like how Turkle puts it with the quote “…computers offer the illusion of companionship without the demand of friendship” (346). This puts into perspective how damaging technology is to the connections we make because if someone treats a computer poorly, they will only translate that behavior into the real world. They see this computer as a companion so therefore they will, since the computer does not require a response to emotions, treat others that way thinking they will not get emotional and if they do, they can’t respond to those stimuli.

A clear sign of the overuse in technology is when kids start to lose empathy towards others and act out. When Turkle was observing children’s behaviors at Holbrooke Middle School one account she talked about was one of a seventh grader:

[The seventh grader] was almost robotic in her response. She said, ‘I don’t have feelings about this.’ She couldn’t read the signals that the other student was hurt. These kids aren’t cruel. But they are not emotionally developed. Twelve year olds play on the playground like eight year olds. The way they exclude one another is the way eight year olds would play. They don’t seem able to put themselves in the place of other children. They say to other students: ‘You can’t play with us.’ They are not developing that way of relating where they listen and learn how to look at each ither and hear each other.

                Turkle states that these kids are just plain out being viscous to each other and that is the result of kids having easy access to the phones are different devices around them.  When reading this passage, it should make you feel almost angry in a way when hearing how these children are treating each other. Hearing how this girl says, “I don’t have feelings about this.” It should make people realize how damaging technology is. I for one when reading that feel fed up with the system that has enabled overuse with technology and has made it the norm to give children these devices that have been ruining their emotional state and causing lack of development in these kids. The words they use are very blatant and are not nice in any way. Saying “you can’t play with us.” Is such a rude way of saying that too and shows how blatant they are being, because if they were being nice, then they could have used a nicer way of saying that but since they have been accustomed to the harsh truth of technology, they are using rude blatant words to put down their fellow classmates.