1. I agree with Bloom’s main argument that Empathy is overrated because people forget the actually meaning of empathy and sort of act as if giving empathy was a trend. People these days feel that if you do something for someone it means that in return that we deserve something back. Acts of empathy isn’t meant to reward you its meant to help other people and lift you guys both up emotionally not by being rewarded for something. However, I do disagree with some of his claims that he brings forth since all cases have exceptions and also when social media is involved there is an advantage over situations being broadcasted versus if they weren’t broadcasted. In addition, some of his examples he gave were more because the people in charge weren’t taking in other possibilities into consideration.
  2. Bloom challenged me to really think on how I think on empathy because I know that I use empathy through life to try and help the people around me but just because I know how to use empathy doesn’t mean others do. Bloom brought that to my attention by mentioning the Sandy Hook incident somehow the people that saw it happen on the News thought that sending stuffed animals was a kind gesture to support the families that lost their child. While for some of them it may have come from good intentions but for others it was more a trend the town had asked for less donations, yet people still sent them. If I were to hear about the situation, I wouldn’t have taken such extreme measures like these other people had taken I don’t know the families and the impact this death had on them I would try to show condolence but at the same time give support and help if the families asked for help.
  3. One claim Bloom states is that ” empathy is limited as well as it focuses on specific individuals” (2). After this quote he talks about the Sandy Hook incident and how it was treated. He compared it to shootings that happen in Chicago. When reading his I can understand how he says that empathy but these reasons why people felt more empathy for the Sandy Hook children compared to the Chicago shooting is the fact that the Sandy Hook shooting was broadcasted all over America too see it wasn’t limited to just the state of Connecticut to see all the states in America saw while in contrast we can guess that if shootings happened in Chicago it was only televised in the state of Illinois rather than in neighboring states. The spotlight affects that Bloom talks about more comes from the fact that social media is now involved, and people try to televise everything that’s happening.