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[cranefly]

I'm not sure if it's exclusive to students, but more of a general trend in our society. We're less involved with/in our communities, we're less involved with family, we're materialistic, we're selfish, etc. I don't think it's just young people--I think a significant portion of the population has gone this way.  But I do think young people tend to exemplify it, because they're less subtle in their "couldn't care less" attitudes.

I see it most in driving culture, which I have noticed a marked difference from when I was young. People used to let you in, and give you a break, now there's this road rage all the time and everyone is out for themselves, pushing to get ahead at all costs. It's different. It's not just me that's changed: it's definitely different, and not in a good way.

[fiona]

There's a lot of golden age thinking here. It was better when I was young, people were nicer, kids were well-scrubbed, everyone watched out for their neighbor's lawns, hardly anyone mugged anyone.

Well, every generation has that kind of beat-up-the-young mentality.

What I think is particularly rude to the point of being kinda funny is work that shows students may volunteer, but their hearts aren't pure. Therefore, some of the comments here seem to say, their volunteer activity--no matter how good the results--isn't valuable, because they did it for the wrong reasons.

What does it matter whether people feel love for their neighbors, as long as they do good and charitable things for their neighbors?

Martin Luther King said words to the effect that "The law can't make the white man love me, but it can make him stop lynching me, and that's a start." 

Any activity that involves stopping bad works, or doing good works, is a good activity, even if the person who did it is really Genghis Khan.

The FIona

[neutralname]

So The Fiona comes out as a utilitarian, stomping all over Kant and Aristotle.  Peter Singer would be proud.

I don't know about the scientific credibility of the claims by the psychologists, but I was struck last semester at how surprised students were to learn the value of taking seriously other people's views and perspectives.  Along with the mantra of "everyone is different and everyone's view is valid" goes the (supposed)  consequence "I don't need to pay attention to anyone else's view."  I did find that emphasizing that in fact there is a great deal of commonality between people (and animals) and that it is worth examining other people's views for their strengths and weaknesses led to some of them being a little shaken out of their personal worlds.

[fiona]

So The Fiona comes out as a utilitarian, stomping all over Kant and Aristotle.  Peter Singer would be proud.

I don't know about the scientific credibility of the claims by the psychologists, but I was struck last semester at how surprised students were to learn the value of taking seriously other people's views and perspectives.  Along with the mantra of "everyone is different and everyone's view is valid" goes the (supposed)  consequence "I don't need to pay attention to anyone else's view."  I did find that emphasizing that in fact there is a great deal of commonality between people (and animals) and that it is worth examining other people's views for their strengths and weaknesses led to some of them being a little shaken out of their personal worlds.

I don't know whether I'm being complimented, dissed, or footnoted.

Anyhow, the self-absorption of youth (at least in Western culture) is pretty universal. If they don't feel empathetic, at least they can do empathetic things that make good use of their energies and health. Maybe I'm more like FDR, with the WPA and CCC projects.

I've had very few students who actually don't care what others think. They care passionately what their peers think, and they'll do whatever their peers do. So if their peers do empathetic volunteerish things . . .

The Fiona

[neutralname]

I think it is better if the students have the right motives and character, but The Fiona makes a good point that until then, it is still better to do helpful things.  Smile more, and you will feel happier.  Fake it til you make it. 

[kaysixteen]

We may actually be at the point at many competitive, academically-oriented US hss, the kind where the vast majority of grads are expected to go on to 4yr colleges, where we are putting too many requirements and de facto reqs on the kids.  This also includes the 20+ hours per week at paid jobs many of them work.

[inthelab]

We may actually be at the point at many competitive, academically-oriented US hss, the kind where the vast majority of grads are expected to go on to 4yr colleges, where we are putting too many requirements and de facto reqs on the kids.  This also includes the 20+ hours per week at paid jobs many of them work.

We reached that point a few years ago I think.

[der_gadfly]

I see a lot of youngsters who recognize that everyone has the right to their opinion:
" I believe that XYZ, and everyone else who does not believe as I do is a neolithic throwback." and
"If you disagree with my opinion you are dissing me so I have the right to punch you in the nose."

Truth is that every generation laments the poor educational preparedness, the lack of common sense, the laziness, the lack of work ethic, etc in the following generation. We observe behaviors and attitudes that are not of our time, therefore they are somehow less valuable than our own.

der_offspring did a lot of community service in HS, and even though they now earn no bonus points (der_offspring do not put current volunteer hours on their resumes), they do still get involved, but that is probably because they were taught the importance of service to their fellow-humans. I see a lot of self-serving attitudes among the youths, but I also see some honestly engaged ones as well.

I suppose when push comes to shove, we all tend to focus on ME ME ME rather than THEM. Self-preservation and all that.

[scampster]

Sometimes the motivation for doing volunteer work is purely selfish, but I would imagine that most of the kids that do so eventually start to empathize with the group they are working with. So we shouldn't dismiss doing good things to get a line on your college applications/resume.

[larryc]

I mean, look how empathetic these kids are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5zFiYHgftw

[eumaios]

There's a lot of golden age thinking here. It was better when I was young, people were nicer, kids were well-scrubbed, everyone watched out for their neighbor's lawns, hardly anyone mugged anyone.

The FIona

Plus, men were taller and braver, women more beautiful and virtuous, dogs more obedient, and horses faster. And cigarettes were good for you. Those were the days, let me tell ya.

Does the term "college kids" mean anything? Does the category include both the rural, semiliterate, poor, fundamentalist, ultra-conservative, fiercely self-reliant, child-of-a-sharecropper people enrolled in my classes and the rich, suburban, Daddy-bought-me-a-Range-Rover, country-club brats that my daughter met in college? If so, "college kids" seems about as precise a demographic term as "person."

As to whether people are less empathetic these days, I recall a story about a Samaritan, a tale attributed to an itinerant Jewish preacher said to have told a number of moral stories around 2,000 years ago. One might conclude that people have always needed reminders about empathy and compassion.

[t_r_b]

I love it when fifty-/sixtysomethings blast us thirty-/fortysomethings for unfairly criticizing teens/twentysomethings. If only we could learn to treat the youngsters with all the patience and tolerance with which you oldsters always treated us. </eyeroll>

[cranefly]

There's a lot of golden age thinking here. It was better when I was young, people were nicer, kids were well-scrubbed, everyone watched out for their neighbor's lawns, hardly anyone mugged anyone.

The FIona

Plus, men were taller and braver, women more beautiful and virtuous, dogs more obedient, and horses faster. And cigarettes were good for you. Those were the days, let me tell ya.

But this is one survey given over 30 years that illustrates the marked difference in personalities. How can you dispute that?

[larryc]

But this is one survey given over 30 years that illustrates the marked difference in personalities. How can you dispute that?

By calling it bogus. BOOOOOOOGGGGGGUUUUUUUUSSSSSSS. At least that is how it appears in the breathless newspaper story you linked to:

They note that the most sizable empathy drop came after 2000 as social networks such as Facebook and MySpace began to flourish.

There is saying about correlation and causation--what is it again?

These “physically distant online environments” allowed people to “lionize their own lives” and “functionally create a buffer between individuals, which makes it easier to ignore others’ pain, or even at times, inflict pain upon others.”

When you are a scientist your opinions and prejudices become facts. Science is like magic that way!

They also point to the recent case of a New York medical student who posed smiling, giving a thumbs-up, with a cadaver, a photo that later circulated on Facebook.

Yeah? I'll see your Facebook-cadaver-dead guy and raise you this:
http://cosmopos.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/1930-lynching.jpg

“These kids were born around 1980. It could be a change in parenting style. … Kids are getting the implicit message from parents that success is what really matters. It’s hard to spend your life pursuing success and at the same time pursue empathy, because empathy takes work.”

Now they are just pulling stuff out of their asses. They are not even pretending.

Mary Gordon, the Toronto founder and president of Roots of Empathy, also blames a “poverty of time” in families . . . . The non-profit organization offers an experiential learning program to students from kindergarten to Grade 8 to help beef up children’s “emotional literacy.” School officials typically call the organization after they’ve seen a spike in bullying. (The program was offered in 13,000 Canadian classrooms this year.)

So someone who is pushing this has a business interest in the diagnosis. I want everyone to look at me please. This is my shocked face. See? Shocked.

“When you have social change, the children are always the canaries in the mine shaft,” Ms. Gordon said.

Metaphor fail.

This is crap, and such obvious crap that one wonders why it is taken seriously. The answer is that it supports and opinion many of us already have. We turn off our critical facilities. But it is bogus.

[scampster]

When you are a scientist your opinions and prejudices become facts. Science is like magic that way!

After a year +, I finally have a signature line!