Introduction
Today, social media has a significant influence on a person, especially on the formation of various habits. Social networks continue to develop actively and take more and more time away from people. People spend most of their time following what is going on in the lives of others but do not think about how this lifestyle affects them. Now human empathy is directly influenced by social networks.
Social media influences
Social networks have the most significant influence on teenagers and their behavior. Children and teenagers are the primary consumers of the Internet, so they get the most power (Dalvi-Esfahani 3). Since this type of entertainment offers a wide variety of things to like, there is much content. In particular, such a large amount of content actively develops people’s dependence on social networks (Dalvi-Esfahani 5). A person is constantly in front of the phone screen, and a sense of reality and self develop less.
Impact on Teenagers and their behavior
Social networks directly affect the fact that people experience stress and are constantly in that state. The main reason for losing compassion for others is the direct experience of stress. That direction affects what emotions a person experiences. Empathy is often lost because of high expectations or the inability to achieve something. Thus, direct comparison of personality with others in social networks destroys our worldview.
In addition, it is worth saying that people on the Internet can watch not only entertaining things but, very often, direct publications that cause us to sympathize with other emotions. Thus, because a person is constantly under the influence of various emotions, very often, such an experience can bring a very negative result to the emotional state of a person (Moorlock and Draper 290). In particular, emotional exhaustion, which takes away people’s energy, often occurs in such a case. Accordingly, a person no longer has the opportunity to communicate freely with other people and show compassion.
Losing compassion for others is the direct experience of stress
It is also essential to understand that social networks inform us of different news daily. Today, there are a lot of adverse events that affect us in one way or another (He 20). Because these things make us feel emotional, the brain can automatically block out emotions. That happens for a person to experience less stress, in which case a person cannot sympathize with others (Moorlock and Draper 290). Empathy very often turns into apathy due to a large number of emotions.
Compassion disappears due to poor self-esteem
In this context, it is also worth considering that a lot of compassion for others often disappears due to poor self-esteem. Social networks are now direct proof that ideal people often become famous and receive the support of many people (Anksorus and Bradley 750). In this case, many begin to understand that they are worse than these people because their self-esteem is deteriorating, which is usually accompanied by depression or other negative emotions (Anksorus and Bradley 753). People cannot openly communicate with others and show emotions towards them, including empathy.
Conclusion
Most often, social networks harm people, manifesting in various situations. Due to the active development of such planes, they are very often emotionally colored as much as possible, so a person cannot directly sympathize with others because he has many emotions. Due to the constant stress they carry on social networks, many people cannot fully understand their feelings.
Works Cited
Abdul-Mageed, Muhammad M., et al. “Recognizing pathogenic empathy in social media.” Eleventh International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. 2017.
Anksorus, Heidi, and Courtney L. Bradley. “Using social media and focused learning activities to impact self-efficacy of empathy.” Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning 12.6 (2020): 741-750.
Dalvi-Esfahani, Mohammad, et al. “Social Media Addiction and Empathy: Moderating impact of personality traits among high school students.” Telematics and Informatics 57 (2021): 101516.
He, Zeya, et al. “Pride or empathy? Exploring effective CSR communication strategies on social media.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (2022).
Moorlock, Greg, and Heather Draper. “Empathy, social media, and directed altruistic living organ donation.” Bioethics 32.5 (2018): 289-297