Friends in Need Is Empathy in Short Supply These Days? Youth Culture Lesson Finding Teachable Moments in Culture From YouthWorker Journal and YouthWorker.com Friends in Need Is Empathy in Short Supply These Days? By Paul Asay Posted: June 23, 2010

What Happened: College students just don’t care about other people as they once did. That’s the word from researchers who looked at scores of recent studies related to empathy. Those studies indicate college students are 40 percent less empathetic than their forebears in the 1980s and ‘90s.

What Happened: While the study didn’t give a reason for the drop in empathy, some speculate the boom in social networking might have something to do with it.

What Happened: The more time we spend talking with people on a computer, the less time we spend with them face-to-face. That’s key because we often pick up cues to how people are feeling through watching their faces and listening to the inflections in their voices.

What Happened: “You might spend your night posting on Facebook walls and sending out tweets to hundreds of your online friends,” Michigan graduate student Edward O'Brian told USA Today, “but by doing so, you're also not spending time with real people and gaining valuable interpersonal experiences.”

What Happened: Regardless, the new study seems to counteract other evidence that suggests youth are actually more empathetic in some ways. High school students, college students and 20-somethings for instance are more likely to volunteer than their parents.

Talk About It: How much time do you spend talking with your friends? Is most of that time spent talking with them in person? How much time do you spend talking with your friends via texting or Facebook?

Talk About It: Have there been times when you’ve felt alone? When you really needed to talk with someone but couldn’t find anyone to talk with? Have you ever missed opportunities to help your friends when they’ve been depressed?

Talk About It: Do you think technology improves friendship? Detracts from it? Does it do both? When have you been glad for things such as Facebook or Twitter? Have you ever thought texts, tweets and Facebook posts just got in the way of real friendship?

What the Bible Says: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” 1 Cor. 1:3-5

What the Bible Says: “Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father, and do not go to your brother’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.” Prov. 27:10 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12