“The news is making me so tired.” It’s a sentiment that seems more common than ever.
Today, it seems as though thousands of people want to hide from the steady stream of bad news that comes our way, whether it’s via social media, notifications or news aggregators. Under the weight of 24-hour reporting, we’re getting outraged – saddened – and finally, exhausted and burned out.
At the same time, news outlets are growing more sensational with their reporting. Since they survive on attention, reports need to be ever-more dramatic to capture our attention amidst the noise. What ends up happening is a type of vicious cycle. We are getting bored and fatigued by the world’s disasters, and the news responds by making each disaster seem even more sensational than the last.
And what we’re seeing is more people stop caring. Their empathy hasn’t disappeared – it’s just been exhausted.
For some, this empathy fatigue can be motivated by selfishness – tuning out because they feel entitled to information that makes them feel good. Others may be genuinely well-meaning but so overwhelmed that they can’t manage the flood of negativity any more.
Either way, there’s a numbing effect. Another story in Syria, and we turn the page, our eyes glazed over. As Susan Sontag commented in her essay Looking at War:
Flooded with images of the sort that once used to shock and arouse indignation, we are losing our capacity to react. Compassion, stretched to its limits, is going numb. So runs the familiar diagnosis.
What happens when the world demands more empathy from us than we can give?
The problem of exhausted empathy
Some have compared what’s happening to the general public as compassion fatigue – a syndrome experienced by many healthcare professionals. It is defined by psychologist Charles Figley as
a state experienced by those helping people in distress; it is an extreme state of tension and preoccupation with the suffering of those being helped to the degree that it is traumatizing for the helper.
The general public, certainly, aren’t on the front-lines in that same way – and I certainly am not. But some of the results can be similar.
Compassion fatigue can be catastrophic to people in emotionally-intense occupations because they can become detached from the compassion they need to do their jobs. Doctors can grow cold and callous; emergency workers can get jaded; ambulance workers can become angry and frustrated.
Faced by 24-hour news reporting, many of us can grapple with similar detachment. We stop “doing our jobs” of caring when others are suffering. And similarly, we can struggle to muster empathy when it’s needed. We’ve seen it all before.
Some of our responses could include:
Indifference
“I know all I need to know about this.”
Victim blaming
“I feel for the refugees, but they shouldn’t have come here on boats.”
Fatalism
“I could give a donation, but it’s not going to make a difference.”
Deflecting
“Sure, Syria’s situation is terrible. But shouldn’t we help our own first?” (And then helping neither.)
Withdrawal
“This is stressing me out too much. I can’t look at my social feed.”
Whatever the response, the common denominator here is the same: inaction. It’s a sort of self-preservation. But it’s a fine line. If we’re not careful, it can be an excuse for moral laziness.
It’s a paradox. Either our compassion is in danger of over-engaging, or it’s in danger of not being engaged enough.
So what do we do about it?
One question I keep coming back to is, “Do I have to feel bad to do good?” What does it mean if I have to rely on emotions to act to help people who need help?
I’ve challenged myself to think about how I can set up structures that help me make a difference, regardless of how I’m feeling. Simple things – like researching causes I care about and setting up an automatic donation each month – can help me commit to helping consistently, imposing some logic on my empathy. (And leaves room for one-off donations, too.)
For my own health, I can take inventory of what I’m consuming and its effect on me. Is it helping me stay informed, or is it making me overwhelmed? Reading every news source doesn’t necessarily make me a better advocate – and in fact, it can make me the opposite.
It can be helpful to get some perspective from brushing up on some history – even ten or twenty years ago. There’s truth to the adage, “There’s nothing new under the sun”.
Crucially, breaks from social media can help you recharge and refocus your ability to feel for others. You can’t fight a fire for someone else if you’ve collapsed from exhaustion yourself.
The problem of empathy exhaustion in a 24-hour news world is a uniquely modern challenge. But even when the world wears us out, we can’t afford to check out and stop caring. It stops us from doing what we can do.
As Mother Teresa said,
If you can’t feed one hundred people, just feed one.
