The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World

by Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips

their magic of creating bridges is sometimes overpowered by their capacity to help us burn them.

compassion is feeling for someone; empathy is feeling with them.

That, she hypothesized, is because they are constantly plugged in to social media, which has been shown to alleviate loneliness in the short term but has uncertain effects in the long term.

bullying especially has taken on a whole new tone. Ayub hears a lot from parents and teachers of kids who suffer from FOMO—fear of missing out—when their so-called friends seem to purposely not invite them out but then tag them in photos of fun events that happened without them.

“Empathy is important, but it is insufficient,” she said. “You feeling bad doesn’t do anything for the public good. Your actions do things for the public good.”

People want information from journalists, not directions for how to feel or what to do.

It’s hard to grasp tone via text, and many workers report harboring worry, guilt, and frustration with colleagues and bosses based on unclear communications.

Empathy isn’t just listening, it’s asking the questions whose answers need to be listened to. Empathy requires inquiry as much as imagination. Empathy requires knowing you know nothing.