In the fourth industrial revolution, humans are not making the most of this potential advantage. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said at Davos this year that in a world with a surfeit of AI and machine learning, "human values such as common sense and empathy will be scarce." A finding by Sara Konrath at Michigan University shows that young people are becoming less empathic than ever; American College students showed a 48% decrease in empathic concern and a 34% drop in their ability to see other people's perspectives.
The figures indicate that precisely now, when our powers to engage with others could make the difference between ourselves and our automated counterparts, we are allowing our empathy muscles to atrophy. We are, to put it simply, disengaging.
Some 87% of millennials admitted to missing out on a conversation because they were distracted by their phone. Ironically, in a world that is increasingly connected, we as individuals, as families, as a society, are becoming less connected. A Gallup poll shows that families eat together less and less, while51% of teens would rather communicate digitally than in person (even with friends). And 43% of 18-24 year-olds say that texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with someone over the phone.
So at a time when we should be flexing our empathic muscles and becoming more emotionally intelligent we are actually dumbing down. We have become empathic slobs and this is a problem that needs to be addressed. MIT is one of the few institutions that understands the importance of honing its students' emotional intelligence as well as their technical skills.Their undergraduates - soon to be the world's elite technologists - can attend a "Charm School", a long-running, tongue-in-cheek programme which includes advice on everything from when to make eye contact and how to kindly break bad news.
MIT have hit on an invaluable point, realising the need to fill a crucial gap in their students' educations. But by the time young people reach tertiary education it might already be too late. We need to build empathy into our entire education system and create corporate environments that value skills that have previously been labelled as "soft" add-ons.
-- The figures indicate that precisely now, when our powers to engage with others could make the difference between ourselves and our automated counterparts, we are allowing our empathy muscles to atrophy. We are, to put it simply, disengaging.
Some 87% of millennials admitted to missing out on a conversation because they were distracted by their phone. Ironically, in a world that is increasingly connected, we as individuals, as families, as a society, are becoming less connected. A Gallup poll shows that families eat together less and less, while51% of teens would rather communicate digitally than in person (even with friends). And 43% of 18-24 year-olds say that texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with someone over the phone.
So at a time when we should be flexing our empathic muscles and becoming more emotionally intelligent we are actually dumbing down. We have become empathic slobs and this is a problem that needs to be addressed. MIT is one of the few institutions that understands the importance of honing its students' emotional intelligence as well as their technical skills.Their undergraduates - soon to be the world's elite technologists - can attend a "Charm School", a long-running, tongue-in-cheek programme which includes advice on everything from when to make eye contact and how to kindly break bad news.
MIT have hit on an invaluable point, realising the need to fill a crucial gap in their students' educations. But by the time young people reach tertiary education it might already be too late. We need to build empathy into our entire education system and create corporate environments that value skills that have previously been labelled as "soft" add-ons.
Source: World Economic Forum
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