Miles' AP Lang discussion
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The Dancing Mind
Read this link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study What do you think? Does reading REALLY increase empathy?
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First, one of my best friends, Melissa, tells me I'm the most empathetic person she knows. She says I'm empathetic to a fault, and I agree sometimes! It's true that I can absolutely feel what others feel, and because I read so much, I think I can really understand even if I have never been through that particular situation myself.
As a result, people TELL ME STUFF all the time without me even asking. This is a burden and a blessing. It's a burden because then I have to feel that pain with them, but it's a blessing because these people have trusted me, sometimes just me, with this information, and I might be able to help them heal. It's also a blessing because people tell me good stuff too, so I get to partake in that joy. It can be emotionally exhausting, though.
I read widely and thoroughly. I take it all in. I allow it all to be, even if I don't agree with it. Who am I to judge another person's existence? Really.
Enjoy all,
MM
I do think that reading increases empathy. Typically, I am the person that my friends come to when they need someone to listen to them because they know I've been through a lot. I like knowing that they trust me enough to open up to me like this.
I attribute this empathy to how many books I read. My tendency is to read sad books or books with a character that is set aloof from the others and is not open with others. As a result, I tend to empathize with that character and that empathy translates to my life.
-Jordyn M
I most definitely think reading increases empathy. It makes you a better communicator and overall helps you understand others better. Reading the thoughts of others can help you reply better when your friends or family pour their thoughts onto you. You know what to expect and even have a little experience.When i was younger i never used to read, until about middle of junior year actually. As the amount i have read increased, my empathy toward others increased. This shows a strong correlation between my personal experience and the effect of reading on empathy.
To this day i can still tell that i am increasing my empathy while i continue reading more.
I believe that reading can lead to increases in a person's empathy. My friends always come up to me whenever they need someone to talk to, and I have always been described by my peers as quite an empathetic person. Due to the amount that I read, I do feel as if I can connect emotionally with people.Due to this amount of empathy that I have, I have often had to carry the burden of the pain. Although, it is quite nice to know that my friends feel comfortable enought to share these feelings with me.
- CG
I think reading can increase a person's empathy. I think so because when we read books it helps us to see from another person's point of view. Also, it helps us analyze situations we do not always encounter or think about. It expands our minds, and how we view things. Also, with my personal experience, I am someone who is good at listening to others and try to be understanding/ supportive. I do feel like that reading books has given me a new point of view on certain things, and think in new ways. So, yes, I do feel that reading can increase empathy.
Yes, I do think reading can increase someone's empathy. It certainly increased mine because I usually read novels that are romantic novels. My friends always come to me if they need help with relationships of friendships and sometimes family problems.
I do believe that reading can increase a person's empathy. When we read we can see as many sides to the story as the author gives us and being able to look into more than one side of a story at times can help us start to understand what the characters are going through.It helps us in the real world with empathizing when a friend or family member is going through something we can't feel but can help get them through.
Yes, I do think reading can increase someones empathy. When I read it gives me the chance to see situations through many characters eyes when the author allows and also feel what each character is experiencing. For example, in Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Charlie is revealed that Sam was molested by her dads co-workers. While reading this scene I could feel the emotions of each character and when I think of the past people who have confessed they were also molested I feel as if I know a bit of what they were feeling and what they have overcome.
Yes, i think that reading increases empathy. Whenever i read a novel, i feel as though i am the character in the story because i can see how the character feels in the book, how they act, and things they say. I get to experience what they're faced with, along with the character. When my friends ever come to me for advice, some ask me "how do you know that?" or "you sound so experienced with that". It's not just me thinking about the situation and how i would approach it myself, also i get my ideas from novels i've read. So Yes, reading does increase empathy.
I do believe that reading increases empathy. Reading fictional novels gives the reader a chance to live in the characters shoes. It gets the reader thinking about how the character feels and why they feel that way. With non-fiction books, the character knows how they feel and everything is explained because it's a true story. In literary fiction, on the other hand, has what David Kidd likes to call, "incompleteness of the character," so it gets the readers into understanding the character's mind. Kidd also mentions, "What great writers do is to turn you into the writer." For example, having an independent opinion in solving problems or guessing what will happen next before reading the next chapter, puts the reader in the character's position and helps them understand more. So, I believe reading definitely increases empathy.
I believe that reading does in fact increase a persons empathy. When I read, I feel as though I am the main character. I put myself as though I am going through what is taking place in the book. I get to read and experience things I have never felt before. You get to take a whole new perspective on things you wouldn't have thought of before. Personally with me, I feel as though I am really empathetic towards others. Friends always come to me to just vent, or for advice. They always tell me that I know just what to say, to make them feel better. So to conclude, I do believe reading does increase empathy.
I do think reading increases empathy. Reading allows for a reader to see the main characters perspective, and even empathize with other characters. I know that when I'm readings certain books I think, "Wow, I could never do that in a million years even if I wanted to." For example, while I was reading The Hunger Games I could almost feel the pain Katniss was going through with all of her endeavors, and I just wanted to jump into the book and help her!
David Kidd states "the same psychological processes are used to navigate fiction and real relationships. Fiction is not just a simulator of a social experience, it is a social experience." This is the reason why reading does increase empathy. I feel as if reading is just another way of gaining experiences and knowledge without physically having to go through them.
I do think reading increases empathy. While reading, the reader often connects with the character on an emotional level and is able to empathize with that character. Based on the writing style of the author, the reader is able to feel what that character feels, and creates an even stronger connection when they have been through that situation themselves. I just recently finished Paper Towns by John Green, and I felt like I connected with the main character, Quentin. The author's descriptive writing allowed to me feel Quentin's frustration and yearning to find Margo. I felt like I was beside Quentin throughout his journey. In conclusion, I do think reading increases empathy.
I think reading does increase empathy. While reading something, you tend to think more about how a certain character feel towards one another in a certain situation. Without thinking, you start to connect it to your life and you may see how a character is hurt from another doing an insulting action. This may cause you how to rethink your own situation. When I was in about 5th grade, I read the series How To Survive Middle School by Nancy Krulik. Even today as a junior in high school I think of these books and how the main character Jenny gets bullied and "out done" by another girl at school. I think of how mean the girls were to each other and how pointless that really is. This shows that reading can increase empathy towards others.
Yes I do think reading increases empathy. When I read I feel like I am actually a character in the book. I can connect to the characters depending on the book I am reading. For example in the book divergent, the author described what the characters were going through and I related it it. That book is one of my favorites because it goes in depth and makes you feel like you're the main character!
I do believe that reading increases empathy. Personally when I read-and likely when others read- I tend to get emotionally attached to the protagonist, antagonists, and every other aspect of the story. This emotional bond often dictates the type of empathy I have toward a certain subject or situation. By reading and learning from the reactions and perspectives of others I often make certain choices because reading has given me some experience. Like the article said, the difference between the stories that are told and the stories that the reader tells are very different in the impact they leave on the reader,and I have seen this through many books. I remember reading the Series of Unfortunate Events all throughout my sixth grade year and almost ripping my hair out over the ending because it was one of those fill in the blank endings (like Inception). At the same time, stories like these help me to understand the choices I have in empathy and dealing with others.
I believe that reading increases empathy. Although I do not read as much as I would like to anymore, I still feel like I have gained general knowledge of others through books. When I read I can usually imagine myself as the character doing dangerous things or being the odd person out. This extra feeling that is gained helps me take the place of others in these situations and therefore increase my empathy.
I do think that reading increases empathy. I feel as if you really get into the characters as your reading and try to put yourself in their situations. Which also depends on how in depth the author goes on portraying the character. When I read, it makes it easier to understand and feel what the character is feeling if the author does a good job painting a picture for the reader.
I greatly believe that reading increases empathy. When getting to know characters within whatever you're reading you examine what kind of lives they lead and what kind of situations that those characters are in. As you continue to read you better understand things that you may have never understood before. Reading helps us to be able to comprehend real life situations thus increasing our empathy towards others. -Hayley T.
I believe reading can increase a person's empathy. I am one of those people who cry during every movie and almost every book due to feeling so much empathy towards the characters, even if it is not sad! Being able to share someones emotions with them almost instantly has been a built in reaction for me, but has also been more equipped with better responses through reading. Understanding different point of views in any situations gives a rare incite to a person. Reading can give you this special incite.
In attempt to answer the question at hand, I have thrown together a hash of anecdotes and evidence from the article itself that swayed my opinion as a wave may capsize a small vessel(I approached this topic skeptically, but upon further inspection of the catacombs of my mind, I realized what part of this argument my brain was willing to bark with):When I was young, around seven or eight, I picked up, for the first time in my life, a "chapter book" (as the little ones call it) that was over 70 pages and FINISHED it. The title? "Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone". As a result of the passion and fire that I felt for the characters and the way that I learned I could understand situations from other perspectives, I absorbed exactly how to successfully put myself in other people's shoes and began the first inklings of questioning what is really right.
Reading most definitely, and in some of the most profound ways, is capable of increasing a person's empathy...But I also believe that the level at which any person is willing to understand and wholeheartedly "feel" the book...to put it on like a glove and perform dexterity-demanding tasks with it wrapped around their fingers...should be credited with how much a person's empathy may be increased.
In the article, my boat was rocked when the author included this quote from Kidd:
"What great writers do is to turn you into the writer. In literary fiction, the incompleteness of the characters turns your mind to trying to understand the minds of others."
Mostly, this blew the dust from my mind's recall gears from when I really began reading and encouraged me to think, "Huh...I guess that this IS true! Not only do I take the situations at hand in the text and compare them to real-life scenarios, I am comparing characters with people I know in everyday life and am diagnosing them and their actions according to the character's actions toward other character's within the text and vice-versa."
My empathy has been increased immensely, especially from my early reading experiences. I often times am fully capable of choosing the right answer to any odd situation simply because I can wear the shoes of everyone involved and I can feel my feet inside the soles of those who were faced with the same situation and failed or succeeded to get through it. In addition, I am able to pick apart and analyze WHY I failed at something and to see what will make me succeed in the slide down a familiar slippery-slope...
Those around me do benefit from my ability to lace-up a friend's mind-worn pair of converse: I have been told that I listen well and often times, friends who I haven't spoken to in a while will come to me just so they can have a pair of ears and a little encouragement/advice on times where they experience rock-in-a-hard-place, the sky is falling, Monday morning type crises, and even when they feel on top of the world and full of elation and pride.
Reading increases empathy and all of those other good things about reading and understanding emotion...Keep reading...BE the momentary high-jacker of shoes...Mud-up your own pair of flip flops with some experience of yourself and other people whether those experiences are real or fictional.
I believe that it is extremely possible that reading increases the ability to empathize with another human being. For myself personally,emotion isn't something I'm too familiar with(not to say i don't have emotion, I do) and empathy is something that I have to really search for inside of myself in order to make it appear. More often than not, it's often difficult to do, and I don't always succeed. However, with reading, I have noticed that when dealing with myself, I am more self-aware and I am able to connect with characters in the current book I'm dedicated to.(Although when I try and connect with people, it's much more difficult) I believe that being self-aware allows people to empathize with one another. Thus, going back to my first statement, I do believe it's very possible for reading to increase the ability to empathize with others.
Yes, I do feel like reading makes you a more empathetic person. The more books you read, the more characters you have to try to connect to. Once you read so far into a book, you begin to connect to the characters and almost feel like it is you in the book. I relate characters in the book to characters in my real life. Most books should have some sort of theme in them, then I feel as if I am more sensitive to that theme in my life. After I read a good book, it makes me relate whatever happened, to my real life.
yes I believe reading increases empathy. in my experience, I've found that I am able to read people's expressions easier because of how the books I've read describe the reaction of another character. therefore I can quicker assess one's reaction and accommodate to the emotion that person is feeling. for example, I can tell when someone is sad from the look of hopelessness or sorrow in their eyes. by being able to accurately read their expression I can then appropriately react in a reassuring or comforting fashion. also, by reading of situations I haven't personally experienced, I know why to do or say when someone comes to me for help. thus, reading has improved and increased my empathy.
yes, i think reading increases empathy! when reading books it really is like you're in an inner world and that your analyzing characters and wanting to learn more about them. If a book is intriguing you tend to feel connected with the character and emhasize with them. well, atleast i do. In general, I do consider myself a very empathetic person! Reading books especially helps with understanding different people and how to react.
I personally do think that reading increases empathy. When experiencing empathy, you take on another person's point of view to see why they feel or act the way they do. Reading helps this way of thinking because it gives you perspective. Perspective on how the charters feel and why they are responding a certain way. Reading helps you to get into other people's minds and thoughts. It opens up worlds and mindsets you wouldn't have without reading. Whenever I read about a character's point of view, i understand why they are choosing the actions they do. The more i read from different view points, the more I can empathize with people in stories and people in real life.
I'm gong to try to be cautious when answering this question, because I first of all don't think that reading increases my empathy, but reading can increase another person's empathy. There are different points of views that can be taken on this subject. For example, I, am a naturally realistic person. I try to, although more times than none, fail at feeling empathetic towards another person. This is because I have a hard time identifying with another's pain, or even happiness when it's not directly connected to me. The feelings just another person is feeing just isn't realistic to me. So, as I'm endulging myself in to a book, I find myself not being emotionally affected by the dire situation the characters are going through. Instead, I logically try to figure out what I would do if I was in their situation. I don't feel sorry, or sad, or cry for the characters. So, reading, does not increase my empathy.Of course that's my personality, but, another argument that can be made, is that reading does increase empathy. Now, that's absolutely contradictory with what I've just said, but, it isn't all a contradiction. Even if reading doesn't increase my empathy, it does strengthens another reader's empathy. I occasionally talk to a friend of mine about a recent book he's read, and he always tells me about how sad he felt while reading it. Listening him go on, and on about how he felt so mad at the antagonist, to the point that he wanted to kill the character, is amusing to me. This is because that friend of mine is feeling empathatic towards the characters in the book, and he's letting his emotions get affected by the text. The words he reads on the page becomes realistic emotions that he constantly feels as he flips from page to page. This is the empathy that I don't feel, and this is the kind of emotion that he ususally wouldn't have towards someone he knows outside of the covers of an author's writing. Then, why does he feel empathy towards the characters? Well, because reading, makes him empathetic! Reading doesn't increase my empathy personally, but, it does affect others that I know. So, there can be two answer to this one question. And, they aren't mutually exclusive, so they can occur both at once, but with different people.
Let me begin by saying how dare Mrs. Miles make us read something that begins with "Have you ever?" That aside, reading literary fiction does increase empathy. This was most apparent when I was reading the Hunger Games and witnessing the relationship between Katniss and Peeta. Reading of the different situations they were in made me question what I would do under that same circumstance. This "putting myself in their shoes" was a practice of empathy. Practice makes perfect, and reading a lot of literary fiction guarantees a lot of practice, therefor increasing empathy. The sheer amount of different scenarios reading literary fiction puts you in guarantees empathy to be felt.
I believe that reading does increase empathy. However, I do believe that the book genre plays a role on how much empathy. Of course reading expands vocabulary and lengthens scientific discussion and conversation between others, but only while reading literary fiction as said in the article.A personal experience would be going into AP Lang this year with not a very strong vocabulary, and now, only a couple of months into the school year, and I find myself using words that I have grasped from some of the literary fiction novels we have read or annotated. It goes to show how reading does enhance vocabulary and increase empathy.
I believe that reading increases empathy. Not for any reason other than the idea that while reading you get an idea for how other people live. I think this is also true for many movies or other forms of storytelling. While I may not feel empathetic towards somebody because I have not experienced the same situation, reading provides the opportunity to live out a scenario, then remember it later in the real world. This may also show why girls can be more empathetic because they tend to watch or read more emotional movies/stories that effect their behaviors.
I do think reading increases empathy. When you are reading you are taking in all of the author's feelings or thoughts that they put into that book. Whether you realize it or not, the words on every single page were carefully crafted thoughts/feelings that the author wanted to portray. Frequently, friends of mine need advice or just someone to have a conversation with when things aren't necessarily going well. When they tell me the circumstances of their situation I may not have gone through that specifically but I'm able to empathize with them because reading helps to understand emotions.
Yeah I'm pretty sure you become more of an empathetic person after reading a bunch. Where as sympathy's the "I feel bad for you", empathy's the "I understand.The whole article made me think of this quote I have stored away on my tumblr somewhere. Since this is a reply and not an essay, I'll withhold citing it and all that junk. Anyways, the quote goes, "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." This was said (or written, I'm not too sure) by a guy named James Baldwin. I'm not too sure who James Baldwin is, but he seems like a pretty cool guy.
I kinda wanna make the point that living the full spectrum of life is real difficult, and it's a gift that few people in life have managed to obtain. I can't come up with somebody who's actually fulfilled every aspect of life but I'm definitely sure that there's somebody out there who has. The fact of the matter is, doing all that life has to offer in one lifetime is hard as _______, (I'll spare typing in the blank to follow with Group Rule number 1) but books help. The books you read teach you to understand others. You may not have ever been sent to a psychiatric hospital where you felt so much above others; like you don't belong there, but you read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and you begin to understand. You may have never felt animosity towards you by just about everyone you've every met in your life, but you read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger and you begin to understand. Books help you understand experiences you may have not been though, and they teach you how to cope with the ones you have.
I'm currently reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The premise of the 727 pages is the idea of the importance of rugged individualism; the importance of your own person and the disregard of (or at least the drift away from the importance of) the successes of a society or community. This idea is exactly the opposite of how I view the world, but reading the book taught me to understand Rand's viewpoint.
And it's not to say that you absorb everything you read like a sponge. You read like a filter, you comprehend the words with a grain of salt and you assimilate the ideas of the author with your preexisting ideas.
Book are the carriers of language and information. They're the teachers that everyone can have and they can teach you how to intelligently feel. The citizens in Brave New World were never given the liberty of reading, and as a result, they turned into some sort of brainwashed emotionless zombies . I'm about 300% sure that Huxley was alluding to the importance of language and literature when he wrote that facet of the citizens into his novel.
I'm not too sure how to end this so I guess I'll just 'restate my thesis' and say that yeah, I really do think that books increase a person's empathy. Books help you feel for others through the understanding of their experiences, and even if you yourself have not gone through such experiences, books provide you with a lens into which you can begin to understand.
Yes I do think reading increases empathy because you really get into character and you can feel the characters emotions. I also get a picture in my mind when im reading and I get into books when i read them and makes me understand what im reading much better.
I also believe that reading literary fiction increases empathy. I believe so because in literary fiction the reader must understand what the characters are thinking and their emotions. This is even harder in a book because there is no visual body language for us to perceive , so we must know how to read the thoughts and dialogues of the characters instead. This analysis increases the empathy of us readers because we can see what people are feeling easier, since we must in the books we read.
I truly believe that reading increases empathy. From personal experience I can support this statement. After reading many books such as 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult, my empathy has definitely increased. The main character of this book, Peter, really helped me gain a perspective about kids who are bullied and helped change my mindset about being hurtful to others. The different circumstances that characters are put in stories also help increase my empathy. It makes me think of questions like "What would I do if I were in that circumstance?" A lot of the time it helps me get an idea of what the characters are going through. Overall, reading most definitely increases empathy.
I believe that reading fiction books does make you more empathetic. Books are written with the intent for you to connect with the story. You need to feel how and what the characters feel and that can help you understand other people. Reading can also change perspectives which in turn creates empathy. People often don't like others because they can't see from their point of view but stories force you to see things in a way you might normally not. Fiction stories push us out of our comfort zones and make us connect with characters, and they can also help us connect with people in real life too.
When basing it off of just myself, I have to conclude that reading does not make one more empathetic. Though I am constantly reading fiction books, I have a very hard time with understanding people's emotions outside of fictional characters. I have no problem sympathizing with others, but when empathy is needed, more often than not, I will flounder desperately.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
I believe reading can change the way we respond to the people around us in drastic ways. Specifically, how we empathize with each other can be changed a lot! All it takes is a good book. I think that each book takes its reader on a journey of new experiences and discoveries. When we are introduced to this new knowledge we can use it regularly in our own lives. In this way, our empathy increases greatly when we read. Reading shares with us the gift of splendid and sometimes unimaginably wonderful experiences!
In my own experience I can say that by reading I can encompass these gifts and use them to better understand someone and their actions. I'm still fairly young, my life is still on-going. There are many experiences I have yet to enjoy. But, reading gives me this sense of participation. Reading makes me feel as if all of their experiences can be my own. Books are pretty much my only credibility for helping someone out.
So, in short, I believe that reading helps you empathize with the people around you.
By reading, you gain new experience and discoveries.
I somewhat agree with this article. I think by simply picking up a piece of literature one is connecting with another because, obviously, they are consorting with the mind of the author. Too often I think it's easy for me to judge or minimize book characters: "Oh, I never would have done that!", "What are you thinking? Why would you even act like that?" And yet, more often than not, I've never been in that actual situation so I can't even begin to make conclusions. It's funny how ubiquitous this situation is in every day life. How quick we are to assume; how quick we are to judge. But we don't know the whole picture. I think reading puts empathy into good practice. It instigates compassionate thinking and, as Atticus Finch said, "walking a mile in another's shoes." While a book is indeed finite--it does give you the whole ending simply by finishing--the conclusion has a way of doing the opposite--not bringing closure. That unrest, that's where the empathy comes from. The plaguing grasp that requires a response. Reading is a beautiful thing simply because it tends to unsettle us, and thus leads us to action.
I do believe reading can increase empathy. To me, when I read I feel as though I'm in the main character's shoes. When the character experiences a traumatic event that results in the character feeling saddness or greif, I feel that emotion myself. For example, when I read the Fault in Our Stars (Spoiler), one of the main characters died, and I could feel the grief that the family felt.
I do believe reading can increase empathy.As you read a story, you become attached to the characters and involved in their lives or stories, and you form a better understanding of their thoughts. If the piece is written well, you think along with the character and feel the emotion they feel throughout the book.
As an avid reader, of course I believe that reading can increase one's empathy. While reading, most authors can make it seem as if you're truly there, in the story. This helps to feel what the characters in the book are feeling at the time. This then gives a whole new perspective to the reader. Most people bring that out into the real world. They learn to find how someone is feeling, and be more empathetic towards them.It seems to be a natural compulsion after reading for so long.
On personal experience, most people come to me before anyone else for all sorts of various subjects. Overall, the subject is more projected towards the way they're feeling.They ask for advice, and sometimes they just simply ask for support.When I ask them what other people have said about their particular problem, they tell me that I was the first one they came to. When I hear that, truly feel fortunate to know that people trust my words of empathy more than any other's.
Therefore, based on all of this information, reading definitely increases a person's empathy.
I think reading does increase empathy. In books you read the characters thoughts and actions, and you feel like you've been through their experiences with them. You developed an empathy for real people that could be going through those things. For example, I read "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green and now I have a better understanding for what kids with cancer go through.
I absolutely agree that reading improves the empathy a reader may feel. When reading a book, I can feel the emotion the character is feeling. Connecting to the character is the best way to create empathy, and when creating that connection, that bond with the writer's mind, helps produce the empathetic view necessary to understand why the character is doing certain things. I've been told more than a few times that I've got an abundance of empathy for other's situations, whether they are just drama related situations, or ones that are horrid, I'm able to connect easier. As a result though, I find myself almost too far into people's situations, and have to refrain myself from their problems to create time for my own problems. Empathy is an essential tool to deal with people and reading books is an amazing way to learn how to create a better understanding of empathy and how to feel empathetic towards others.
I do think that reading does increase empathy especially when the characters go through emotional pain. For example, I feel the emotions of the main characters of "The Wall" by John Hersey, which helps me understand better of other people especially when that people collide with the characters' situation. There are books, such as "We beat the street" that give me life lesson, but also, letting me understand people that are trying to reach their goal even though their situation may be best suited to reach their ultimate goal. This type of book wanting me to help other who are in this situation. Also, most of my friends trust me enough that they even tell me their situation and I will give them encouraging words or relate their situation that to my situation if I ever experienced it. Likewise, I am not afraid to express my emotion or the road that I have walk through to get to where I want to be, so that may be the partial reason why they entrust me enough. I will surely look out if the books that I am reading are increasing the empathy.
Reading increases empathy 'cause like if you is brought into the thoughts of a character, you'd understand more people with similar experiences. Such as for like an example, I would feel more empathetic towards bullied teenagers after reading a book about a bullied teenager.
Yes I think reading can really increase empathy. To be honest i'm a very empathy person myself. Whenever i listen to someone's story I always feel related and connect to them. I really like the book that i'm reading now. The books basically sum up all of my emotions and thinking. By reading the character Kj in Geek Magnet i can fully understand why she feels the way she felt in the book. Before reading this book I did not realized how much I can relate to a book. It's amazing. It motivate me to read more about it. When reading I can really put myself into the character's shoes.While reading I find myself thinking what I would do if it happen to me. That's why I truly believe that reading can increase empathy .
Manda: I completely agree with the assertion that " Reading the thoughts of others can help you reply better when your friends or family pour their thoughts onto you." Empathizing with fictional characters aids in empathizing with the people in your life.
I think reading can really increase empathy. whenever a friend is having a problem, I try my best to connect to them and try to help as much as I can. The books that I read now also correspond to myself and how well I connect to people. I can relate to the characters in the book and sometimes those problems the characters have, my friends have the same one and I can talk about it.
Read this link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/book...
Do you think reading really increases empathy? Why or why not? What personal experiences have you had to back this up? What other evidence can you think of to back this up?
Have fun!
Mrs. Miles