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1) There is a natural cognitive bias, the older one gets, to see society as going downhill.
2) I have been increasingly worried about social trends for several years now.
It's getting very hard to write off my worries as just being a symptom of #1. All the antisocial behavior we kept excusing as something "just on the internet" has been leaking more and more into the physical world. We all spend all our time in an environment where the only response to the most hideous of attacks is just "oh, ignore it, it's not serious". Of course empathy is becoming increasingly unfashionable! Even traffic is getting more aggressive, with people breaking the speed limit much more consistently and to greater average degrees it seems. But obviously it's hard to trust those observations.
Is there an intellectually rigorous method for resolving this dilemma?
2) I have been increasingly worried about social trends for several years now.
It's getting very hard to write off my worries as just being a symptom of #1. All the antisocial behavior we kept excusing as something "just on the internet" has been leaking more and more into the physical world. We all spend all our time in an environment where the only response to the most hideous of attacks is just "oh, ignore it, it's not serious". Of course empathy is becoming increasingly unfashionable! Even traffic is getting more aggressive, with people breaking the speed limit much more consistently and to greater average degrees it seems. But obviously it's hard to trust those observations.
Is there an intellectually rigorous method for resolving this dilemma?
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As someone of a somewhat medium-age (not as old as you, not a young'un) I don't know if I see all the stuff you're talking about. Young people seem very engaged to me, at least as much as they were when I was in highschool. There are anti social behaviors but there are also new socializing of things that used to be solo activities, like the constant sharing of what you're doing on social media (what music you're listening to, food you're eating, scenery you're looking at, now something to be shared in real time).
So in short, I don't know that I know what you're talking about. Some of this might just be the whole out-of-the-country, out-of-the-loop thing, and if that's the case, it makes me dread going back, somewhat.
But I wonder in what circles the response to horrible attacks is "just ignore it, it's not that bad" ? At least, I can't think of anyone I know who would say such a thing. Maybe it's hard for me to see it the way it's described. Maybe I am one of those people and I'm just saying it in different words, by minding my own business and eating pasta rather than taking to the streets in protest.
I don't know!