You've likely seen one of many memes depicting a crowd of people staring at their phones while apparently ignoring the world immediately around them. How much value does the meme place on what's happening in our immediate vicinity? Is what's lost the inherent value of things happening elsewhere, to others, to humanity at large, or entire communities of people? In other words, does this meme rhetorically imply that what's happening around each of us is more important than what is happening to others? That empathy is no longer important?

A few years ago, I came across a photographic meme depicting the three "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys alongside a fourth monkey using a smartphone. The picture I included with this post is an example of the one I originally saw perhaps four or five years ago. My first reaction to the meme was that the first three are great representations of people who failed to speak up when they heard or saw something bad happening around them or in the world. In my view, the monkey with the smartphone is actively engaging in its own education, speaking up if it sees or hears something happening in the world at large and presumably making the world a better place for it. But that's not how many people engage on the internet today. Is it? Many people hide instead behind the anonymity of the internet and push their baseless views on the world. They laugh about the views of others and carelessly destroy people's lives and sensibilities as a result. Much of it is what we call bullying.

When you engage with others on the internet, do you engage with empathy? Or do you see the internet as a no-liability way to evangelize the world to your views, your way of thinking, doing, and living and actively seek out like-minded people to increase the dopamine rush you get knowing others think just like you? When presented with views from across the world that contradict your beliefs, do you push back, laugh, and demand that the world must conform to your views? Is it difficult for you to be wrong in your thinking even when presented with factual information that contradicts your views? If so, the world is not broken nor in need of repair. The work to be done for a better world begins with overcoming your inability to change yourself for the better. Empathy is one of many tools you can use to learn to do that. The benefit isn't just to everyone else, but yourself as well. It isn't about conforming, but contributing. If you make the world a better, easier, and happier place to live in for everyone else, you'll find yourself living in a better, easier, and happier world.

Do you interact with the world with empathy? Or are you comfortable contributing to the destruction of humanity by example of your inability to change for the better? Your children, friends, grandchildren, and future generations are watching. Are you showing them empathy?