I saw a post regarding an accident on Instagram. I cried, then I scrolled.
You have probably come across the statement and have felt it too, but wait a second, are we talking about an incident or accident or crisis or breakup that took place? And what's next? Are you seeing any trending reels on Instagram? That might not make sense, but we wipe our emotions, then we swipe, like, react, and move on. The reel may be like an AI-generated dog dancing to a trending audio with perfect moves. But in all this space, are we still feeling something for something bad happening or just consuming?
Empathy is a feeling about connecting with someone and understanding their feelings without any judgment, full stop. That makes us human beings. But in this age of technology and social media, we have forgotten our emotions and often try to connect with the world and show zero feelings toward any incident. We may stand for the incident for a few weeks, but significantly, we lose our attention towards the matter and focus on other reels, shorts, and quick dopamine hits that become easier to be entertained by emotions rather than getting engaged with them.
If we take the example of the Ahmedabad plane crash tragedy or the very recent cloudburst tragedy in Himachal Pradesh and the video circulating of the homes collapsing and human beings being flushed away or the dead bodies of people who lost their lives in this or people crying for their lives, etc., it becomes very fascinating for the human beings who are not involved or are facing the circumstances. And the comments are so inhumane that we forget our education, emotions, or feelings. We comment as if it were a movie scene being shot, but do not forget that someone lost everything in that video, and in that comment, such as "what a shot," "insane footage," etc., we give a negative remark over the situation.
There are many human interest stories that are related to the struggle of a normal middle-class or higher-class society, but sometimes sharing their journey takes a lot of courage forrs that person'so mental health to share it with society,t so the audience should be motivated and try not to be weak in such situations. But the comments on that post showcrea the sign of non-empathy towards the society and for humanity. The stories are uploaded so that the widening gap can be covered with these efforts. But not every scroll is for fun; some are to understand the situation and give empathy towards it. The more you engage with these algorithms, they start feeding you with the same content, and you barely understand the time you have lost and the emotions you carried were flushed away in a moment. You really give time or space to feel deeply.
But this cannot be a trap to blame content creators or reels; it's about ourselves remaining in a state of pause and reflection. There are instances where tragedy is being edited for views and trends, but in this we risk desensitizing an entire generation. We can only switch the change while taking a pause while seeing something for real, and we should come meaningfully and with empathy, and we should always support stories that matter instead of seeing whether they are trending or not because real empathy starts when we are not emotionally burnt out.
Due to social media, there is limitless content, and some without meaning, but you should not forget why we are humans, and let's not forget to feel. There may be reels that may be short, but the people behind them have real stories, real pain, and real joy, so it's okay to enjoy content, but let's not forget to take care of our emotional values. We can swipe a reel in a second, and we can have an infinity of emotions and laughter, but you should also pause for a cause that should be taken care of and should be highlighted, and in that was humanity's service.
Empathy isn't just an emotion; it's a responsibility.
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