Sara Konrath, a researcher at the University of Michigan, has " found that college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those of 30 years ago, with the numbers plunging primarily after 2000.
....Previous studies have documented an increasing narcissism among college students since the late 1980s. And Americans in general perceive decreases in other people’s kindness and helpfulness.
....What happened? “We don’t actually know what the causes are at this point,” Dr. Konrath said. But the authors speculate a millennial mixture of video games, social media, reality TV and hyper-competition have left young people self-involved, shallow and unfettered in their individualism and ambition."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/fashion/27StudiedEmpathy.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1277633546-3p38AQtS9Af44c3zzVvjzw
Perhaps we should begin with the basics. A class in Ethics of the Fathers is in order.
My kids grew up in the 80's and 90's and I noticed then that the kids were different, more competitive, mean spirited, etc. I have always been suspicious that it was because they are being raised by day-care centers. Even on week-ends they seemed too eager to farm out their kids to friends houses or bring other kids to their homes to either keep them busy or to please them. I was pretty unpopular because I said no so much. Looking back, I wish I had said no even more.
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