Empathetic
teenagers are able to use failure as a learning tool to know what not to do
when approaching success. Empathy is the
ability for a person to feel what someone else is going through, even if that someone
is a complete stranger. In the Empathic
Civilization Ted Talk video, Jeremy Rifkin says “Empathy is grounded
in the acknowledge of death and the celebration of life”(Empathic Civilization). Teenagers
that show empathy can acknowledge the stresses of life and use setbacks to
maneuver through to the solution. They
often comprehend the material they are learning and know how to apply it rather
than just memorizing to get by. Ugo
Uche, a licensed professional counselor, said, “teenagers who are empathetic
tend to be more purpose driven and they intentionally succeed in their
academics not because they are looking to make good grades, but in most
subjects their goal is to understand the subject material and to utilize the
knowledge as one of their ever increasing tools”(Ugo Uche). Teenagers that are not empathetic show to be
self-centered and are not able to take Failing as a learning experience, but
rather as a negative impact on their lives.
“Teenagers who are more empathetic do a much better job in embracing
failure, because there is little ego involved in their tasks, and setbacks
while disappointing are rarely seen as a failures, but rather as a learning
experience about an approach that does not work for the task at hand”(Ugo
Uche). Even though some people are not
as empathetic as others, research shows that empathy
is built into human nature by mirror neurons. Humans are soft
wired to help each other survive and prosper.
The problem is the act of accessing and using empathy from within one’s
self. Non-empathetic teenagers need to
realize how beneficial empathy is to themselves and those around them; empathy
is the tool to success.
Victor becomes
like a salmon, he is able to swim through the hardships of Native Nations and
losing his father to PTS. The film Smoke
Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, displays a contemporary native nation of the
Coeur d’Alene, where Victor grows up with his friend Thomas in a world of
poverty, alcoholism, and posttraumatic stress.
“You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're
just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some
children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them...
Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash”(Thomas-Smoke Signals).
Victor grows up with constant rage and anger of his dad’s drinking problem (the
flame), where as Thomas becomes very naïve, but is weak to anyone that
confronts him (ashes). Arnold Joseph leaves Victor at a young age, and
eventually passes away in Arizona.
Victor voyages out to Arizona with Thomas to amend his past with his
father. Along the trip, Thomas pushes
Victor to the breaking point by triggering past memories of his father. Thomas is trying to make Victor confront his
past and tells him, “all I know is that when your father left your mother lost
you too”(Thomas-Smoke Signals). After a
long journey home, Victor is able to understand what Thomas is telling him. He
realizes that his father did not mean to leave; it wasn’t his fault. It
was because of the Vietnam War and the Oppression of Native Americans that
caused Arnold Joseph to become an alcoholic and burn the house down. He
always wanted to come back, but he couldn’t, knowing that
he had Thomas’s parent’s blood on his hands.
Victor comes back to his reservation with the ceremony complete. Victor is like
a salmon because of his journey through confronting his past and the treatment
of Native Nations. He also realizes that
the death of his father is meaningful and that it gives meaning to his life,
like a salmon. Salmon travel far
distances up river, only to reproduce and die.
“In the end, it is their death that provides the gift of life”(National
Geographic). Victor eventually releases
the ashes of his father off a bridge down a cascading waterfall. Victor
screams all of his frustration, anger and breaks down like ashes, only to
rebuild his new life.
The advancement
of technology has changed how society spreads their knowledge and their ideas
(Press Pause Play). There are many different ways people communicate: intrapersonal,
interpersonal, group, and mass communication. All of these types of
communication include a source, a channel, and a receiver. The
channel is how information gets from one to another, whether it’s by talking,
writing, drawing, texting, calling, etc. This allows for culture to
spread through society. Today, there are countless more channels to
communicate through, channels that allow mass communication like social
media. Writing letters or post cards is
becoming a lost art because of the access to electronic mail. The availability of technology in this age
has been greater than ever before. People
without the greatest economical standpoint can make a name for
themselves. One only needs a smart phone to write a book, take pictures,
create film, or even draw. David Girhammar says, “I would not be where I
am today if I lived 15 years ago, because I was in the age of the
specialist”(Press Pause Play). One can now publish a book or post their
own music by themselves online and become their own boss without larger
companies interfering; A third party is not needed to be involved to distribute
ones art by taking a percent profit from the artist. Anybody with an
imagination can create whatever he or she wants and share it with the
world. Moby says, “The human spirit when it’s allowed to become made
manifest through art invariably is going to create greatness. It almost
doesn’t matter what the medium is…when humans make things, they tend to make
interesting things”(Press pause play). With all the different kinds of
technology and social media, almost anyone can express themselves anyway they
want to. However, the more accessible
technology becomes to everyone, the more saturated society becomes of the
images and ideas around them. Seth Godin,
in his Ted Talk video about how to get
your ideas spread, explains how to make one’s idea stand out. “In a world of too many options and too
little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff…when it
comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than
boring ones”(Seth Godin). Using new
technology allows soceity to communicate to people when they are half way
around the world. Seth Godin shows how
to spread one’s ideas through technology in a successful way.
For every
problem Joe encountered, he was able to use social media and the empathy of others
to survive. In the film Craigslist Joe,
Joe does an experiment on whether he could live for a month by only using
craigslist Joe to get food and shelter.
Joe goes on to show how random people came to help in at times of need
because of the empathy they had for him.
The empathy that was conveyed between Joe and all the people he met on
his journey started because of social media.
“The most inspiring experience of my life…The generosity of people and
the stories they share and the connections I’ve made in one month is so
deep”(Craigslist Joe). Joe meets all kinds of people from different
cultures and communities and is able to connect with all of them, even though
he is much different. Some say social
media may be distracting, but it has so much more potential to be beneficial to
everyone. In an article about how social
media builds empathy, Elizabeth Tenety says, “many younger Americans see social
media as a place where they find meaning. A 2013 study found that
teenagers often feel that social media helps them to deepen their relationship
with others”(Washington Post). Social
media actually empowers us to bond as one to invent and create strong
relationships. Although social media can
show depressing and negative actions of other people, it allows us to feel and
help for those in need. Rainie says, “In
the grand scheme of communities and society, there’s probably a pretty good
case to make that being aware of the good and the bad just makes you a little
bit better a friend and a little bit more tuned into what’s going on around
you”(Washington Post). Social Media has given the world more opportunities for people to empathize
with each other, bringing society closer together then ever before.
The laguna
Pueblo culture learn to change their ceremonies throughout time to adapt to
current society. A ceremony is a series
of transitions that helps one get to a better state of mind. In the novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko
describes Tayo’s ceremony of healing from white oppression and PTS. There were
many obstacles and distractions along Tayo’s journey, including drugs, alcohol,
friends, and family. Tayo learns that
western medicine is only a temporary way out from facing life challenges. “…the
thick white skin that had enclosed him, silencing the sensations of living, the
love as well as the grief; and he had been left with only the hum of the
tissues that enclosed him. He never knew how long he had been lost
there, in that hospital in Los Angeles”(Silko 213). The medicine
acted like a scapegoat from his PTS and only made his problems larger. Alcohol
acts in the same way, by clouding Tayo’s mind from the war in the Philippians
and the deaths of Josiah and Rocky. With the help of Old Betonie and Ts’eh,
Tayo becomes at balance with himself.
Tayo is able to see past the witchery of the world and realizes that in
order to heal, one needs community, storytelling, and nature. “He
cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories
fit together-the old stories, the war stories, their stories-to become the
story that was still being told. He was not crazy; he had never been
crazy. He had only seen and heard the world as it always was: no
boundaries, only transitions through all distances and time”(Silko
229). Tayo understands that as the world changes, one must
transition through with it. Suzanne M. Austgen explains how ceremonies change due to white contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual. Frank Waters states in Austgen’s paper that, “For here as nowhere else has the conflict
been fought so bitterly, and have the opposing principles approached so closely
a fusion. At that fusion there will arise the new faith for which we are crying
so desperately"(The Effects of White
Contact on Pueblo Myth and Ritual). This quote means that Native Nations need
to integrate and adapt to the changing of their surroundings.
