Making A Difference In An Apathetic Culture
Apathy—it’s running unchecked on our college campuses, seeping into our business meetings and creating a culture full of colossal egos with little to no room for a heart.
In 2011, The University of Michigan rated college students as scoring 40% lower on scales of empathy, compared to the 1970s and 1980s. Imagine the scores now. Who or what is to blame? Technology seems to draw the proverbial pointed fingers: Instagram, Twitter, Hulu, etc.—It’s steering our culture into a vast sea of screen-filled faces with heads turned down. The search for meaning is now found at a swipe in an App-saturated society.
The search for meaning is now found at a swipe in an App-saturated society.
What does it mean to be human, anyway?
If you have ever been at the grips of poverty or depression, and anything else life could throw at you, you may have learned something along the road---had it not been for empathy, you may very well not have made it out alive. Living at the mercy of others can lead one to look outside the digital bubble and see there’s a bursting world that needs help. What if the homeless, helpless and hurting had something to teach us?
To Care or Not to Care?
Altruism has become a character trait less commonly sported amongst fresh graduates, as we’re taught to be top-of-the-totem if we’re going to make it in this world. But this egocentricity could be cutting our hip lifestyles short. Naturally, it makes sense that technology addiction creates isolation from the “real world,” and the rates of depression are proof that our digitally-saturated society is playing aloof too many a time. How does one dig oneself out of the tech-cave society? A simple answer, really: Look up and offer your time to the community.
Altruism has become a character trait less commonly sported amongst fresh graduates, as we’re taught to be top-of-the-totem if we’re going to make it in this world.
According to Mental Floss, those who lend a helping hand in their communities lead a longer lifespan and carry super-power abilities to manage stress—all while nipping various diseases in the bud. Not only that but generosity is contagious—when we see a fellow human selfishly serve, we have a tendency to want to partake. All of these feel-good chemicals are released, and we become joyful and more positive. Who wouldn’t want to hand the hungry a protein bar after that?
Conclusion
It can be as simple as making dinner for a sad friend or buying that struggling mom a pack of diapers to relieve our hurting world. Helping others who are less fortunate really can change the world—beginning with you.