By: Eve Kodiak

Eve Kodiak — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 20:54:34 +0000

As both the parent of a teenager, and a practitioner who works with teenagers, I have noticed a growing difference in the way teens relate to one another. Before we can assess whether or not there is a change in the level of empathy, we must first notice what has, in practical terms, changed.
What seems to have happened with the social media and kids is that the form now drives the content of the interaction. “Conversations” over texts are strings of stock acronyms; there is little room for individual expression.You don’t necessarily hang out with people and get to be friends; you “Friend” them on Facebook – and they may be people you have never met, or know anything about, and you may both have hundreds of other such “friends.” Facebook is even driving the context of dating.
For example, I had a conversation with a mom whose teen-aged daughter is in her first relationship. It’s with someone she barely knows; they met at a dance. He asked her, “Do you want to be in a relationship?” She said, “yes.” They both went home and changed their Facebook status.
So, being “in a relationship” now means different. It’s not something you build up to, by knowing a person. It’s an icon on a screen.
I had a conversation with a dad whose fifteen year-old son was devastated. His girlfriend had just broken up with him. She did it on the phone.
Except, he found out later that it hadn’t been HER on the phone. She had put her friend up to it.
The dad was in shock. He said, “I would have known my girlfriend’s voice.”
But when most of a relationship is carried on through texting and IM-ing and FB-ing – you don’t necessarily get to know your girlfriend’s voice. Or a lot of other things about her.
Even when kids are with one another, they are continually getting messages from other people. There seems to be less of a sustained ability to just be together.
So, is there less empathy among the texting crowd – which seems to be the entire younger generation? Empathy requires the amount of time and attention necessary to tune into another person – on site. Can one empathize through texting? of course – but it’s a lot harder to do. And I think it may be nigh impossible to develop the capacity for empathy over texts. There just isn’t anything for the mirror neurons to latch on to.
I talk about Empathy and Mirror Neurons in my latest Movement Matters post for the Early Childhood Movement and Music Association. Thanks for this article; I link to it. It is helpful for people working with young children to know what stars they will be navigating by.
http://www.ecmma.org/blog/movement_matters/mirror_neurons_part_iii_empathy

By: Are texting teens losing empathy skills? — Joanne Jacobs

Are texting teens losing empathy skills? — Joanne Jacobs — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:02:14 +0000

[...] Texting teens aren’t learning empathy skills, according to psychologist Gary Small, who spoke at a Hechinger Institute seminar on digital learning in California. The digital world has rewired teen brains and made them less able to recognize and share feelings of happiness, sadness or anger, said the UCLA professor of psychiatry and aging, who has also studied adolescent brains. [...]

Comments on: Are texting, multitasking teens losing empathy skills? Some differing views

By: Eve Kodiak

By: Are texting teens losing empathy skills? — Joanne Jacobs