Psychologist warns about social media zapping empathy from adolescents
Psychologist Michelle Solomon explains the cultural significance of social media and how that affects people's ability to connect to another's suffering amid the OceanGate tragedy.
A cultural expert and psychologist is concerned about an empathy dip among the American public and found it no more clearly illustrated amid hateful comments online directed at the victims of a submersible which imploded on its journey to view the Titanic wreckage.
The Titan submersible OceanGate that has been charging tourists around $250,000 each to ride in is operated by an inexpensive video game controller, its CEO revealed in a video interview last year. The OceanGate's Titan imploded, killing its five passengers; its debris field was found 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage.
The victims were Suleman Dawood, Shahzada Dawood, Stockton Rush, Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Hamish Harding. Harding, a British millionaire, was known for his exploratory escapades across the globe.
Five people died on the OceanGate submersible after it imploded near the Titanic wreckage. (YouTube/screenshot-OceanGate)
As the search was ongoing, a wave of hateful and mocking comments erupted online. Some said, "Eat the rich."
"Why does it seem hard to feel sorry for the rich people that might die in the submersible?" asked one Reddit thread. Memes making Titanic jokes and quips about the foolhardiness of the submersible passengers abounded on Instagram, TikTok and other social media platforms.
"I really think right now our culture lacks a lot of empathy. And I have to look at these social media companies, you know, these big tech companies created these social media platforms for fast scrolling. They care about time online. Not time well spent," said clinical psychologist Michelle Solomon. "And it's a problem because the younger generations [who spend hours online], they're the ones that are going to be carrying on our society. That's problematic. That's scary."
She referred to a feature such as "fast-scrolling" on social media, meaning flipping through reels, videos and images on recommended pages tailored for a user's interests, as a recipe for disaster.
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"And when you're fast scrolling [on social media], you're disconnecting from your feelings, you're disconnecting from the part of you that has empathy for another person, even well-intentioned people," she said. "If you're scrolling fast enough and you're not disconnecting from what actually happened, you would find something funny, and then you'd scroll on to the next thing [without processing it]."
Clinical psychologist Michelle Solomon discusses how social media is numbing the human experience. (Fox News Digital)
She continued, "And these patterns, these daily scrolls that we're all on, we're all doing it. You really have to think, what is this doing to our ability to connect to one another?"
The psychologist also explained why she believed the story was captivating.
"It was one of those things where people felt like they were watching a movie… They wanted to see what was going to happen. They wanted to see a resolution that there would be a happy ending. And unfortunately, there wasn't," Solomon said.
She added it activated some people's fight or flight centers, in particular those who are experiencing anxiety and constant worry.
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Psychologist Michelle Solomon says strategic risks are important for building self-esteem. (Adobe Stock)
"[P]eople that are afraid to take that risk or to do something outside of their comfort zone [this story was of particular interest]. But it's really important to remind people that, with anything, there's always a potential that something bad could happen. But that doesn't mean that you stop taking risk. It doesn't mean that you stop doing things that could potentially be exciting. This was just a really tragic incident," she said.
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Solomon added that people have different capacities for risk, and it's both important for self-development while also crucial to run a safety check.
"Whenever you're growing, or you'd like to do something outside your comfort zone, that's important because that sort of builds character, that builds confidence. I think you have to assess safety, make sure that you've done all the things beforehand so that this event goes well. And then after that, you sort of have to let go and try," she said.
Fox News' David Rutz, Greg Norman, Lawrence Richard and Bradford Betz, contributed to this report.
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