Month: September 2025
- In two healthy paragraphs, summarize the piece AND show (with framed) quotes from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence.
“Is Empathy Overrated” by Paul Bloom challenges not empathy but the morals around empathy. He doesn’t believe empathy is necessarily bad but rather the way it is distributed and applied to society. He believes that empathy has a narrow focus, making people focus on a single individual or group rather than the many others that need it. I think it relates back to what Konnikova was saying in “Limits of Friendship” about how you only have so much intellectual capacity to use when focusing on people. Relating empathy to the different layers of friends, people may drift away or completely fall out of your intellectual space, in this case out of your empathy spotlight. Bloom also believes that, “Empathy is limited as well in that it focuses on specific individuals” (2). He mentions that the support can even be overwhelming when the spotlight is focused on unordinary events that catch our eye and make us want to support.
Bloom strongly believes that, “what really matters for kindness in our everyday interactions is not empathy but capacities such as self-control and intelligence and more diffuse compassion”(4). What he means in his final point is that if you take on other people’s suffering yourself, you may be less effective at supporting them in the long term, since reaching lasting goals often involves causing some short-term discomfort (Bloom 4). Overall, he makes many points about empathy being overrated but these three stuck with me and held the most value to my moral compass.
- Do you agree with Bloom’s main arguments? Why or why not?
I do agree with Bloom’s main arguments. I didn’t at first. I didn’t agree with his second point, “Further, spotlights only illuminate what they are pointed at, so empathy reflects our biases” (2). I didn’t believe that this was true because I believe that empathy is directed towards stories of hardship that are popular. I feel like not all stories are told, which keep these people who need help in the dark on the outskirts of the spotlight. However he followed it up with his third point combatting my opposed thoughts. He followed it up with, “Empathy is limited as well in that it focuses on specific individuals” (2). I took away that the media doesn’t highlight all stories because they only want to post or write up stories that drive numbers. By trying to relate the stories they push to the people we know and love.
- In what ways does Bloom challenge your initial understanding or perception regarding empathy?
Bloom challenges my initial perception of empathy. I’ve known of empathy and how it impacts those in need, but I did not understand that there are so many people that need it. By showing the reader that empathy is indeed important but telling us we are using it wrong, Paul Bloom is stoking the discussion and spreading awareness about how we can improve the ways we use empathy as a society.
- Find one claim Bloom makes that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge OR support his claim in your own words and experience(s).
“it’s far easier to empathize with those who are close to us, those who are similar to us, and those we see as more attractive or vulnerable and less scary” (Bloom 2)
After quoting this he then brings in race. I feel like personally when I give empathy towards a person it doesn’t matter their race. I am more inclined to show empathy towards someone who makes me feel comfortable. Like giving money to homeless people, if they are bent over and have scabs on them I may feel scared so I feel that I don’t show them as much empathy as I would to a homeless person with a smile on their face and somewhat put together. I am not saying that the person bent over covered with scabs doesn’t deserve empathy, but I would definitely feel uncomfortable helping them out. I feel that race isn’t a driving factor when I am giving out my empathy.
- Jot down one specific discussion question (related to the reading) and bring to class to help spark conversation
According to Bloom, it is easier for us to empathize with those who are close and similar to ourselves. Does this mean empathy is shared equally in society as there is a variety of people, or do you think empathy is disproportionately shared among society due to social classes and what society deems as commonly shared characteristics and values?
As Bloom claims we are more likely to empathize with others we relate to, this is a mirror of our own experiences and values. When we can’t relate to others pain and can’t empathize with someone because of their appearance and differences, does this cause an empathy deficit in certain populations in society and if so how can we help reduce this or is this lack of empathy for certain populations something worth addressing?
Over the course of the first few weeks one may notice a positive difference in my ability to annotate, use source integration, preview readings, and write responses to them. We have done some start up activities that reminded me of ways to expand on my reading responses and go into depth using personal reflection. At first in “The Hawk” by Brian Doyle my annotation skills and reading responses were surface level as we moved forward to “The Limits of Friendship” by Maria Konnikova I had broadened my horizon. Taking a look at my annotations in “The Hawk” and comparing them to mine in “The Limits of Friendship” I noticed that at first I would just highlight quotes I found interesting or occasionally highlight ones I had questions about. Maybe I would write a quick note in the margin every so often about something I noticed, whether it be about character development or the basis of the setting. I believed I was annotating well. I then began to utilize the exploring relationships annotation. The annotation style resided with me. Allowing myself to dive deeper into the reading and grow interest in the topic even though it might not have been the most entertaining to me. By relating myself to text I was able to relate myself to the author. For example in one of my responses to Konnikova’s text I wrote, “For instance my current roommate right now, I grew up playing hockey with him and he’s from North Carolina. Being able to maintain a relationship with him through social media and seeing him periodically at the rink I was able to get one of my friends to be my roommate.” By using text-to-self annotation I was able to relate myself to what Konnikova was expressing in her writing even though I was disagreeing with her I was able to connect on a deeper level than if I were to just skim the reading and mark what I found interesting.
Comparing annotations between “The Hawk” and “The Limits of Friendship”
“The Hawk” top picture / “The Limits of Friendship” bottom picture
Integrating sources in your writing is a great way to back up your ideas with those of experts, whose words hold value in the subject. When writing an argumentative piece you can be entitled to your own opinion, but why does the reader care what your opinion is? You have to make your work credible by doing research to bolster your claim. Pointing out how I agreed with Konnikova when she wrote, ““Your five today may not be your five next week; people drift among layers and sometimes fall out of them altogether” (2). Then by backing up her claim with an example of how my friends have changed because of my change in lifestyle. Instead of making my claim by itself without integrating a source, I found an improvement in my writing by using one. It helped me support my claim and keep the reader involved. Integrating a source will keep the reader involved or maybe even sway their opinion.
using source integration to help with 300 word writing assignment
When previewing texts I found that I tend to immediately put down the reading almost immediately due to the lack of interest. Now I am able to keep that reading in hand and dive deep into its words. All because of my new found kill of previewing. Reading the title, author’s name or even seeing an illustration on the cover, I am able to draw interest before I have even started reading. Being able to allude to what the title means, research the author to learn their credibility, and analyze a picture has done wonders for me. It began my interest, after learning the skill I applied it to the reading of “The Limits of Friendship”. I immediately searched up Konnikova and saw that she was a poker player and podcaster, both of which I like. I was then interested in what she had to offer me as a reader. Over these first few weeks I have felt that my experience as a writer as well as a reader have improved and I am excited for the rest of the semester to see how much I can grow.
My first experience of peer review at the college level was quite insightful due to the feedback I received and reading another peers’ writing to help improve their work as well as my own. However I did face some challenges that I can look to improve on next time around. I want to start with the positives, first of all I liked the feedback left on my writing. It helped me realize what I was missing and showed me areas where I needed to be more specific. For instance, in my piece I only mention source integration once and that was supposed to be one of the focal points of the writing assignment. My peer picked up on it and wrote a note to touch up more on source integration. I also found it beneficial to read my peers’ work, I thought their ability to relate to the reader was very strong. My peer had related previous experiences of annotating to their ability now. They mentioned how their ability has grown, how when they first started they too would just mark what they thought was interesting and how now they can use different types of annotations to deepen their understanding of the text.
Although college level peer review was extremely beneficial I did face one challenge. I struggled with offering feedback, I found it difficult to tailor my feedback to someone else’s writing. I know how I like to write, I know that sounds closed minded but it is what I am comfortable with. Looking forward to more peer reviews, I need to be more open minded and expand on my peers’ lens as well as my own. I think offering feedback through their point of view will help expand on their work in the same tone. While offering feedback through my point of view can help with what I think can be added on to the work.
