By Syed Hashim Abbas Bukhari In the age-old debate about the pros and perils of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of the main stances of the Luddites is the absence of emotions in AI thus making it ill equipped to handle situations requiring empathy and emotional intelligence. However, one could argue that this point of distinction between humans and AI is rapidly vanishing as we witness our younger generation increasingly suffering from the phenomenon of emotional desensitization. Let us take a walk through the realms of social media. When our country was fighting a war, the younger generation was engaged in its own meme war on social media, seemingly unaware of the seriousness and gravity of the situation. Whether the world was on the brink of World War 3, facing a new global pandemic or staring down the barrel of rocketing oil prices, the reaction of the younger generation showed alarming levels of emotional desensitization. Instead of intellectual debates, protests, or striving to find a solution, the younger generation indulges in creating memes designed to generate nothing more than likes, shares, and comments. According to researchers, emotional desensitization is a form of emotional numbing or habituation where a situation that triggered a strong feeling no longer affects you as intensely. This is becoming a rising area of concern for our elders who equate our response to these dire and serious situations as a lack of maturity and emotional sensitivity on our part. The argument presented over here is that owing to our access to endless streams of information our generation should be more emotionally evolved as compared to our predecessors. The reality, however, seems contrary to this belief, as our exposure to warfare, natural disasters, and other calamities increases, our levels of emotional sensitivity has seemingly taken a nosedive. The question that should be raised is whether we should be classified as emotionally desensitized or is it our generation just whistling past the graveyard. It is a basic human psychology that when we experience grief or trauma, which is too much to process, we use various coping mechanisms. For some of us it may be anger, humor, violence or isolation but we all have coping mechanisms enabling us to survive various emotionally charged experiences. A study of social behaviors reveals that with the passage of time we have changed our coping mechanisms. In the past humans used to display their emotional trauma or suffering through anger and sought comfort through social gatherings. In the case of our generation, social media has taken the place of social gatherings, and anger has been replaced with humor. Thus, the endless stream of memes, reels, and shorts on every emotionally charged event. Our stance on mental health, gender equality, racism, climate change, and countless other previously ignored or snubbed issues prove us to be a more emotionally sensitive and mature generation. We are the generation that believe that actions speak louder than words. We may seem to be whistling past the various graveyards or making light of serious situations but we are the generation that is breaking down the glass ceiling, bringing down the walls of inequality, and trying to build a society that embodies the morals and values of justice, kindness, and integrity for all. With each new generation the prioritization of emotionally sensitive areas may change, the coping mechanisms may be adapted according to the changing environment, or ways to display emotions may evolve but the thing to understand is that we haven’t become emotionally disengaged or desensitized, we are only embracing our emotions in our own distinct way. As Hazrat Ali (AS) said: “Do not force your children to behave like you, for surely they have been created for a time which is different to your time.”
