David, Princess Belle Marie R.

| 2013-25796
Ms. Louise Jashil Sonido | ENG 10 X4B
Concept Paper: Selfie as Affect
10 May 2014

Audience Numbness and Empathy Deficit in Media

According to the Oxford English Dictionaries, the word numb is derived for the late
Middle English word nome, the past participle of the obsolete word nim which means to take.
The notion is of being taken with palsy, shock, and especially cold. The current use of the
word numb is taking of the senses. Literally, it is the state of being deprived of sensation or
emotion.
The modern person is daily inundated with a flood of media news coverage, television
commercials, billboards, and advertisements. Media is everywhere and unavoidable In spite of
this, [many are no longer affected to these media] stimuli. Instead, there is an anesthetic effect, a
numbness that has dulled the senses from noticing each and every stimulus (Yang)
We're surrounded by children who, since they were born, have watched us living like
robots, who think it's the norm. Its not very likely you'll make worlds greatest dad if you can't
entertain a child without using an iPad (Turk, 2014). Before, children used to run, interact, and
be with other children. But now, in the digital generation, technology has become childrens
definition of entertainment. Now, you just have to tap to run, type to talk, and open up Siri to
find a companion. These result to audience numbness because children grow up exposed to

different media. Without filtering the ideas they encounter every day, it makes them insensitive
of media and looks at it as an everyday routine to see ads and information without feeling
anything about it, even disturbing ones. This made media an extension of man.
Physiologically there are abundant reasons for an extension of ourselves involving us in
a state of numbness. Medical researchers like Hans Selye and Adolphe Jonas hold that all
extensions of ourselves, in sickness or in health, are attempts to maintain equilibrium. Any
extension of ourselves they regard as auto-amputation, (McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan discusses
numbness as the desensitization of the mind and body due to the stimulating shock of new
technology. [And since the body cannot handle the stress that technology gives, it has no choice
but to numb to maintain equilibrium,] thereby amputating the new extension of itself (Yang).
[Humans are unlikely] to win the animal kingdoms prize for fastest, strongest or largest,
but we are world champions at understanding one another (Zaki, 2010). Being empathic was a
characteristic of us humans. It is our ability to understand and care other persons emotions. As
Funk, et al quoted Hoffman, [e]mpathy, the capacity to perceive and to experience the state of
another, is critical to the process of moral evaluation (2004). But as time passed by, research
found that this generations empathic traits have been declining as violence, narcissism, and
cyber-bullying rates are positively increasing.
Empathy deficit, on the other hand, is an effect of audience numbness. Violence is
everywhere; in video-games, television, movies, and even in the internet. Violence in screenbased media may affect empathy by desensitizing viewers to the true consequences of violent
actions (Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). People lose empathy to others being hurt by others

because they are exposed almost daily to violence in media. If the audience recognizes violence
as normal, it can develop pro-violence attitude to others.
Social media makes us feel both more and less connected at the same time (Konrath,
2013). Virtual friendship is an online relationship formed from simply by hitting the accept
friend request button. Social media does not need you to be empathic to create online
relationships with your virtual friends whom you can never have deep connections like you have
with true friendships.
Narcissism and cyber-bullying are effects social media and are considered signs of
empathy deficit. A person who is narcissistic lacks empathy to others since he only cares for
himsef. One uses social media not to connect to other people instead, narcissistic people use
social media more frequently for more self-promoting reasons (Konrath, 2013) since this
type of media is highly accessible to everyone. The high accessibility results to increasing
narcissism. Social media are also used for entertainment. But as empathy is declining, people
tend to make fun of other people or bully them in the cyber space. They do not care what will
others would feel and they only think that doing such would make themselves feel good. Cyber
bullying is a type of bullying done through technology where, everyone around the world can see
how others bully another person. It is indeed an effect of empathy deficit because of the bullies.
News coverage in television will make people informed about the current happenings that
people need to know and movies entertain us. We still need those although it may expose us to
violence. Social media connects us to the world. It helps you communicate with your family and
friends. We still need it although narcissism and cyber bullying can be a side effect of using it.
Violence, narcissism, and cyber bullying as I have mentioned, are effects of empathy deficit

caused by numbness of the audience. Things we do not like (violence, narcissism, and cyber
bullying) are effects by the thing we need called media. People just need to handle and accept
everything that they receive from media.

References:
Funk, J. B., Badalcci, H. B., et al. (2004). Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television,
movies, and the

internet: is there desensitization?. Journal of Adolescence, 27

(2004), 2339. Retrieved from Science

Direct. Retrieved

from

www.sciencedirect.com
Konrath, S. (2013). Empathy on the Decline. The New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/09/23/facebook-and-narcissism/is
declining-empathy-technologys-fault
McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press: Cambridge,
MA.
Strasburger, V. C., & Wilson, B. J. (2002). Children, adolescents, and the media. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Turk, G. (2014, April 25). Look Up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY
Yang, S. Numbness. The Chicago School of Media Theory.
http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/numbness/

Zaki, J. What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic. Scientific American.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care/