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What I'm most interested in is to to what degree the lack of "facial expressions", "speech melody" and the like in internet communication impedes the developmen

What I'm most interested in is to to what degree the lack of "facial expressions", "speech melody" and the like in internet communication impedes the development of empathy. We can communicate with more people than ever before, but our ability to empathize with those people is poor.

temp0826 6y ago
Someone should develop an AI to automatically add emojis to our communications ;)
- rectang 6y ago
  I wonder if technology won't actually help us ameliorate this issue. Improvements in video communication — availability, ease of use, quality, ubiquity — make establishing empathetic connections easier. And there's a lot of room for improvement! (Latency is my biggest pet peeve.)
  - ivankolev 6y ago
    The hologram comms from Star Wars popped in my mind :)
  - jcims 6y ago
    Would be interesting to experiment with a forum that only works with video. Particularly if the video recorder starts when you are playing a 'comment' and captures your realtime reaction/response interaction with the content. Then you have the option to upload or nah. Then on playback the forum synchronizes all of these clips so that it's one continuous experience. UX could be the active video playing while 3-4 live 'replies' silently stack up to the right and you just mouse over over the one you want to unmute (now) and roll into the conversation (next). Maybe your video is in there too so you can hover over it to indicate you want to reply. Lastly the ability for everyone to grab clips and start threads from them would be interesting to help avoid the blab factor.
    - bserge 6y ago
      Like Whatsapp or Discord, but for forums? Eh, I don't know, seems inconvenient (especially on mobile) and a massive waste of storage space...
      - jcims 6y ago
        Still asynchronous threaded conversations, just with video instead of text. Definitely increases storage/processing/bandwidth costs. The question at hand is what is the value of the additional information that is retained. Text has the potential to alleviate a lot of bias around looks/gender/age/race, so it could even be a net negative, just seems interesting.
kayodelycaon 6y ago
I actually do better with text interaction than anything else. It allows me to work asynchronously. Due to auditory processing and executive function difficulties, I get overwhelmed attempting to communicate in real-time. Remote work has been a huge improvement to my life.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
ravenstine 6y ago
I'm not convinced that empathy is developed in adulthood.
alexashka 6y ago
You don't develop empathy - some people have it, some people not so much. We need both, unless we want other countries to come by and explain to us that their un-empathetic people with guns will now be telling us how to live our lives. It's not ability to empathize that's poor online - it's motivation to empathize that's absent. I'd really rather not deal with temper tantrums ever, but if someone throws one and I'm alone with them in a room, I have to deal with it because it could escalate to an even bigger nuisance. If I'm alone with them in an internet chatroom and they can't affect my everyday life, I can express how I really feel - I don't want to deal with your bullshit.
- webnrrd2k 6y ago
  ”You don't develop empathy - some people have it, some people not so much." I don't think this is true, for the most part. A counterexample is buddhists who spend years practicing compassion meditation. It seems to work for them. Lots of religious leaders emphasize compassion, and there seems to be a benefit from it. I know people who pray for others, which is a clearly empathetic act, whether or not I believe in the power of prayer. I don't think that empathy is just a given, as you seem to think. People all over the world, and over vast spans of time have put a lot of effort into developing it.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- zbentley 6y ago
  > some people have it, some people not so much. I don't think that's true at all--not for empathy or for many other psychosocial quantities. While a statistically few people exist who really are biologically missing certain psychological abilities (what we usually call mental health disorders), for everyone else it's totally possible to increase/decrease things like empathy, critical thought, fearfulness, optimism, etc. over time. Making those changes consciously is just a) hard and b) usually quite gradual/hard to gauge progress, so as a result the position that "you either innately have it or you don't" becomes quite seductive. This sword cuts both ways: that ability to change is present even for awful or deeply suffering people. However, it's also possible for positive things (empathy, hopefulness and the like) to decrease over time even without conscious effort. This is one of the reasons that I think everyone, if able, should try to get help in tracking their mental state, even if they're healthy: how you do this might differ (therapy, church, regular mental check-ins with a trusted confidant, journaling, meditation, whatever), but it is a really powerful quality of maturity to be able to watch--and to the extent you are able, manage--your "levels" of these personal/psychological qualities

temp0826 6y ago

Someone should develop an AI to automatically add emojis to our communications ;)

rectang 6y ago
I wonder if technology won't actually help us ameliorate this issue. Improvements in video communication — availability, ease of use, quality, ubiquity — make establishing empathetic connections easier. And there's a lot of room for improvement! (Latency is my biggest pet peeve.)
- ivankolev 6y ago
  The hologram comms from Star Wars popped in my mind :)
- jcims 6y ago
  Would be interesting to experiment with a forum that only works with video. Particularly if the video recorder starts when you are playing a 'comment' and captures your realtime reaction/response interaction with the content. Then you have the option to upload or nah. Then on playback the forum synchronizes all of these clips so that it's one continuous experience. UX could be the active video playing while 3-4 live 'replies' silently stack up to the right and you just mouse over over the one you want to unmute (now) and roll into the conversation (next). Maybe your video is in there too so you can hover over it to indicate you want to reply. Lastly the ability for everyone to grab clips and start threads from them would be interesting to help avoid the blab factor.
  - bserge 6y ago
    Like Whatsapp or Discord, but for forums? Eh, I don't know, seems inconvenient (especially on mobile) and a massive waste of storage space...
    - jcims 6y ago
      Still asynchronous threaded conversations, just with video instead of text. Definitely increases storage/processing/bandwidth costs. The question at hand is what is the value of the additional information that is retained. Text has the potential to alleviate a lot of bias around looks/gender/age/race, so it could even be a net negative, just seems interesting.

kayodelycaon 6y ago

I actually do better with text interaction than anything else. It allows me to work asynchronously. Due to auditory processing and executive function difficulties, I get overwhelmed attempting to communicate in real-time. Remote work has been a huge improvement to my life.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

ravenstine 6y ago

I'm not convinced that empathy is developed in adulthood.

alexashka 6y ago

You don't develop empathy - some people have it, some people not so much. We need both, unless we want other countries to come by and explain to us that their un-empathetic people with guns will now be telling us how to live our lives. It's not ability to empathize that's poor online - it's motivation to empathize that's absent. I'd really rather not deal with temper tantrums ever, but if someone throws one and I'm alone with them in a room, I have to deal with it because it could escalate to an even bigger nuisance. If I'm alone with them in an internet chatroom and they can't affect my everyday life, I can express how I really feel - I don't want to deal with your bullshit.

webnrrd2k 6y ago
”You don't develop empathy - some people have it, some people not so much." I don't think this is true, for the most part. A counterexample is buddhists who spend years practicing compassion meditation. It seems to work for them. Lots of religious leaders emphasize compassion, and there seems to be a benefit from it. I know people who pray for others, which is a clearly empathetic act, whether or not I believe in the power of prayer. I don't think that empathy is just a given, as you seem to think. People all over the world, and over vast spans of time have put a lot of effort into developing it.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
zbentley 6y ago
> some people have it, some people not so much. I don't think that's true at all--not for empathy or for many other psychosocial quantities. While a statistically few people exist who really are biologically missing certain psychological abilities (what we usually call mental health disorders), for everyone else it's totally possible to increase/decrease things like empathy, critical thought, fearfulness, optimism, etc. over time. Making those changes consciously is just a) hard and b) usually quite gradual/hard to gauge progress, so as a result the position that "you either innately have it or you don't" becomes quite seductive. This sword cuts both ways: that ability to change is present even for awful or deeply suffering people. However, it's also possible for positive things (empathy, hopefulness and the like) to decrease over time even without conscious effort. This is one of the reasons that I think everyone, if able, should try to get help in tracking their mental state, even if they're healthy: how you do this might differ (therapy, church, regular mental check-ins with a trusted confidant, journaling, meditation, whatever), but it is a really powerful quality of maturity to be able to watch--and to the extent you are able, manage--your "levels" of these personal/psychological qualities