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SOCIAL MEDIA IS RUINING EMPATHY
52 Plays2 months ago
MADISYN BROWN*** I SPELLED IT WRONG IN THE EPISODE
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Social Media's Impact on Empathy
00:00:00
Awaken Baked
Welcome or welcome back to Awake and Bake, where we get high vibes and talk about the universe. I'm your host, Dani, and these are my high thoughts. Hey, Happy Black History Month. Today is our second installment of the Black History Month episodes. And today, I want to talk about how social media is not only rotting our brains, but maybe ruining our empathy.
00:00:19
Awaken Baked
Honestly, I've been having this concept in my head for a while, but I wasn't really sure how to articulate it because I didn't want to come off. I just didn't want to misrepresent what I'm actually trying to say because it's like a fine line in my opinion. And then wouldn't you have it? I sit down and I watch Madison Brown's video, her newest YouTube upload that is all about social media and empathy and and just like how we as a society, as a collective, and are lacking a lot of fucking empathy.
00:00:48
Awaken Baked
So for Black History Month, today's episode, I do want to shout out Madison Brown.
Cannabis Brands & Empathy Expectations
00:00:52
Awaken Baked
um Madison makes content that is very much like social or societal commentary, feminist commentary, pop culture commentary, et etc. um She's also a singer. She has like an R and&B pop vibe. And I personally just love all of her content.
00:01:09
Awaken Baked
whether she's talking about something that's like super deep and super meaningful or if she's just dissecting something that she's interested in. Madison is one of those deep thinkers like I think we all are. If you're listening to this podcast, you're likely a deep thinker. And that's what today is going to be all about. We're going to be talking about empathy. We're going to talk about social media and we're going to talk about conservatism. Like, am I saying that right? Why does it sound stupid as fuck when I say it? Probably because it is stupid as fuck. I'm sorry, kind of. Also, bitches, what are we smoking? If you haven't tried a Golden State, it is my favorite cannabis brand, like flower in the world. They also own Phases, which is like the slightly more affordable version. My friend and I were talking about it and she described it really well. Her name's Sam Ramos. Also shout out to you, bitch, if you're listening, I love you. She took mine and Isaiah's anniversary pics and she did a great job, but but that's all we're talking about right now.
00:02:02
Awaken Baked
but Sam and I were talking about what is the difference between like a Golden State and phases because it's owned by the same company They're just like I get it once a little bit more affordable But they're both so fucking good and so potent and like the experience is so strong every time if you're somebody with a high tolerance And this is gonna be for you If you're somebody with a low tolerance, this is going to be for you because either way, bitch, you're saving money because you're getting high as shit without having to hit it as like a billion fucking times. so I know for me, I'll go through an eighth in like one sitting. That's honestly why I got a gravity bomb in the first place is because I need to take less hits because I need to be high, but I have a high tolerance because baby, I'm smoking for medicinal reasons.
00:02:40
Awaken Baked
But with a golden state, you can honestly smoke that bitch in a bong and a pipe and a gravity bong. Roll it up in a joint. I just fucking hate smoking joints because like they burn my throat. And if I'm going to burn my throat, bitch, give me a blunt. If I'm going to sit there and waste half the weed anyway, bitch, give me a blunt. OK, that's actually still not what we're talking about. My point is, Sam and I were saying that the main difference, in our opinion, between a golden state and phases is that while a golden state is a little bit more expensive. It's probably because you get this huge, well-rounded effect. And when you smoke phases, you get a huge effect, but it's a little bit more terpene based. So it's kind of like one major feeling. You know what I'm saying? Like it feels a little bit more like, okay, this is going to make you sleepy. This is going to make you excited. This is going to make you mellow. This is going to make you horny. I don't know.
00:03:26
Awaken Baked
Whereas with a golden state, you smoke it and you're like, wow, what a perfect day. Like what a well rounded fucking day. I'm going to go do multiple activities because I can because I have the energy for it and I'm in the right mindset.
Political Discourse & Online Personas
00:03:38
Awaken Baked
Anyway, that's what I'm smoking. And I'm specifically smoking Alpine Sunrise. So it's a sativa, right? But this bitch is the most indica sativa I've ever had in my fucking life. One of the top terpenes in it is linalool, which is the same terpene that's found in like lavender. It's very relaxing, very calming.
00:03:56
Awaken Baked
If all of my sativas had little little, maybe I would be a sativa diva. Whatever you're smoking, go ahead, take a hit with me and then take a little something to drink because I don't want to be responsible for you hooker whores being dehydrated. To be honest though, I don't know if this is hydrating, but it's good for me. I'm drinking bone and broth because you know what, bitch, I do that sometimes. so
00:04:17
Awaken Baked
Look bitch, you ain't choking, you ain't smoking. All right, so let's get the fuck into it. Empathy who? Like literally empathy who? And I'm not just coming at like the public, right? I'm honestly talking about myself too. It was not until recently that I was like, okay, I'm noticing a lack of empathy in the collective or at least in the masses that are online. And then I was like, damn, I wonder, maybe I should reflect. Have I been lacking empathy a little bit?
00:04:42
Awaken Baked
Really sit and ask yourself. This is what I asked myself. I was like, am I requiring perfection from people who like aren't any worse or better than I am? Like and then I really realized there's a lot of people really realized there's a lot of people out there that require perfection from many of us. Right. Meanwhile, they are embarrassingly fucking flawed. So if we're all just a bunch of flawed people judging each other and getting mad that we're not perfect. I mean, it's giving Democrat and I say that as someone who like is Democrat or liberal or on the left or I don't know. No, but bitch that's exactly what I wanted to get into today. I'll also let you know, like when certain parts of this episode are heavily and um inspired by Madison Brown. But right now, like this, I've been wanting to fucking talk about. OK, it's like.
00:05:26
Awaken Baked
No, I don't expect empathy from Republicans or conservatives. They vote in the way that only benefits the white man or like themselves if they are the white man. And then they literally vote that like in a way that they know harms literally everybody else then they find ways to justify it usually through religion, but sometimes through like monetary issues sometimes through racism.
00:05:48
Awaken Baked
Homophobia, sexism, you name it. If there's a bigot there, you know, it's part of that group. And I don't really want to like debate this because like this is the party that loves genocide, pro colonization. Like I said, racist, homophobic, sexist, like they literally use religion to control and abuse people rather than to like be inclusive and like bring people together and like bring communities together.
00:06:12
Awaken Baked
But wait a minute, I'm not just gonna shit on them. Democrats, here I come. Do y'all remember here I come? I am sending me money. Is that fucking Cinnamon Toast Crunch? The taste you can see. Chat, chat, somebody let me know chat. Is that Cinnamon Toast Crunch chat? Do you like Cinnamon Toast Crunch chat?
00:06:28
Awaken Baked
Where was I? Oh, the left Dems, y'all. OK, we hold each other to an impossibly high standard that we don't even follow. Then that just makes us fight each other without progress. And then we're just going in fucking circles. We get absolutely fucking nowhere because we really can't just unify.
00:06:44
Awaken Baked
And I'm yelling at myself, bitch, OK? I have a very fucking hard time accepting people when I think that they are doing shit that is just morally fucking wrong. You don't have to do stuff the exact same way that I would fucking do it. But like, I am going to hold a grudge against you if I think that you are like morally fucked in any type of way.
00:07:03
Awaken Baked
That actually is not getting me super far and I get that. Okay. And it's not even like I have like a complex where I'm like, Oh, well, I just, I'm not flawed. No bitch. It's not that. It's just, I feel like I noticed so many like hypocritical ways of people acting all the time and it really fucking frustrates me. And like, if you see me being a hypocrite, then please lovingly call it out. Okay. But like.
00:07:26
Awaken Baked
Sometimes it feels like why am I trying so fucking hard? And then people seem like they're actually only trying hard on Instagram or maybe they're actually not trying hard on Instagram They just you like call them out for not trying hard at all. And then they like cry. It's like okay Karen shut up I voted for Obama. I can't be racist. Karen, please stop. Karen, shut up. You're not making yourself look better. I don't want to have this conversation, Karen.
Trends, Feminism & Social Media Education
00:07:54
Awaken Baked
And I think that because of all this buffoonery going on, that is why this fucking rise in conservatism is happening. And it kind of crept up on us. But for a lot of us, we saw this coming. And I would like to bring in Miss Madison Brown, who brought up some great points that I honestly forgot about because I was just going to talk about the shit that I always do, which is like clean girl aesthetic, tradwife.
00:08:14
Awaken Baked
And then Madison was like, also, what about girl math? What about these stay at home influencers? Then they're also like Mormon or like Fundy. And then they have like a lack of ambition or like they just don't embrace their own capabilities. And then they're pretending to be dumb and they're doing all of this disguised as fucking feminism when it's not. they're They're doing it in a way of like, well, I don't want to have to work and I don't want to have to think. And I just want to sit and be pretty and wear a dress like I'm from fucking House on the Prairie or is that what it's called? Little House on the Prairie.
00:08:43
Awaken Baked
Because some bitches are like, I'm fucking tired. We're not getting anywhere and I'm getting stressed out. But no, we don't just jump ship and like switch essentially giving up our rights like saying, oh, I don't want to think anymore. Like that's just like girl math. Also, we talk about that girl dinner trend that was pissing me off when it was like girl dinner and it would be like a baby carrot, um a couple pieces of an orange, a couple pieces of an apple and a couple pieces of pickles. I'm not a fucking rabbit.
00:09:11
Awaken Baked
ah You are literally just eating the side that comes with my wings as your whole meal. No, I'm not doing it. And also, can we stop fucking and infantilizing ourselves? My biggest pet peeve is when women act like babies. or If they do like a baby voice to their man or to their partner, whatever the fuck. And when they dress like babies, I don't like the fucking baby doll shit where you're like trying to look like a little fucking girl and then in the same breath.
00:09:35
Awaken Baked
being like, oh my God, like pedophiles are like really on the rise. But like, I only role play child play. And it is like, honestly, it is that deep. I just fucking hate it. I can't stand it. Like you're a grown fucking woman. Stop trying to act like a little baby know for a man. And this is how we get to places when people are like, it's not that deep. It's not that deep. Girl math. Not that deep. Tradwife influencers. Not that deep. And then like, look at where we fucking are.
00:09:56
Awaken Baked
It is that deep. Why am I like on a roll right now? Like why am I heated? Because when I tell you I think about this shit all the fucking time. Also like what the fuck you do behind closed doors is fine. But I'm just saying if I fucking see you at the fucking grocery store, just like a little fucking baby and like lollipop in your fucking hand pigtails going on and like you're with some like older fucking man or like you're just with like your man and you're talking like a fucking baby. See now this is where I get to when I'm like, I don't have empathy. empathy Because I'm like morally, you're pissing me off. OK, so should we take a hit? Let's take a hit because my point was not to feel angry and hopeless. We're going to get somewhere with this, guys. We're working through it.
00:10:36
Awaken Baked
I love whenever I'm stressed out, I'll be like, all right, let me do a breathing exercise. And then I inhale the weed deeply and then I exhale with like a. OK, so annoying infantilization of yourself aside, um I do want to acknowledge we are all having a hard time.
00:10:52
Awaken Baked
we're all doing our best despite the constant hate going on and odds are if you're worrying about being as good as you possibly can be so are others so like if i'm sitting here like well i'm trying to be a good person and so why does it feel like other people aren't trying bitch you're not i like as much as i feel like i'm the only person in the world sometimes i know i'm not and if i'm feeling this way i know how probably hella other people are feeling this way too It's not just me who is trying to be the best that I can be, okay? We're all trying, but some people are crashing out. It's a scary time and I do think people are doing their best. Now, I don't mean stop holding each other to a high standard, okay? I just mean maybe be down to educate versus like exile them. And that's a lot coming from me.
00:11:36
Awaken Baked
Like my friends, I will educate, but my acquaintances, I'm not so sure. I'm still working on growing into a person who can handle conflict without popping off. So that's kind of why. If you're my friend, I can absolutely be more loving. But if you're my acquaintance or a stranger, I'm probably going to have to ignore you. And it's for the, you know what? It's for the best for you and me.
00:11:56
Awaken Baked
But honestly, that's kind of the issue, isn't it? Like, I'm like, well, if I don't really know you, I'm not going to give you the benefit of the doubt. And I do blame social media
Personal Growth & Reducing Biases
00:12:05
Awaken Baked
for that as well. Me taking zero blame for my own issues. I blame social media. I blame the child life movement. I blame.
00:12:11
Awaken Baked
um But I do think it's really easy to scrutinize people online because we don't see all sides of them, right? And it can be hard to tell what's real, what's exaggerated. Also, some people just don't know how to be online. like my For example, my husband, he has accounts on everything, but he like never really posts. And if you tag him in something, he's like probably not even going to comment. If you comment on his post, he's not going to reply. like He's not online like that, but he's still online because he just like looks at reels all day.
00:12:40
Awaken Baked
Now, if you know him in real life, you know he is always advocating for human rights, social justice and trying to like stop any type of toxic masculinity going on around him because, oh, there's a lot. He's a man in the nuclear engineering industry and former military and he plays video games. So.
00:12:58
Awaken Baked
As you can imagine, he sees the worst in these men and the amount of times I hear him on the game educating motherfuckers and being like, so you don't know what you're talking about and you don't understand how XYZ works, whether he's talking about like women's safety and like standing up for like women in in the music industry. Like when he'll say like, why do you listen to Chris Brown?
00:13:18
Awaken Baked
Why do you listen to Tory Lanez when he shot Megan Thee Stallion? If somebody's using slurs, he'll correct them and he'll be like, really? Like, that's what we're doing now? Like, you're a fucking loser who fucking says that shit. But if you're just following him online, you would be like, wow, what an asshole. He like pops into post every once in a while. His green light shows that he's online, but he doesn't like speak out about anything. And it's like, well, no, he doesn't even speak online, period. But he does speak out in real life. So I get it. I'm not seeing all sides of a human, right? Especially when it's celebrities. Maybe you're only seeing like the worst and what people report and maybe they're not talking about all the conversations they're having and the work that they're doing outside of just the online atmosphere. And I fucking get it, OK? I'm trying to stop expecting perfection from others when I know that I am flawed. I'm working on it.
00:14:05
Awaken Baked
I'm not a celebrity with all that attention on me. I'm also only myself and I've only ever been myself and I know how I work and how I operate and I know that the things that I've been through, I kind of like knew like, okay, I'm going to get the fuck out of this because I hate bullshit and I hate being unhappy. So I forced myself to find a way.
00:14:23
Awaken Baked
But I'm not gonna fucking lie. I got lucky enough that I was born in Cincinnati. I was living like near, like right by downtown. I was going to school downtown and I was able to have mentors that like looked out for me and saw what was happening and like reached out a helping hand, a financial hand, a place to live sometimes. Like I
Empathy, Controversies & Media Representation
00:14:40
Awaken Baked
also had community around me that saw what was going on and gave me places to stay.
00:14:44
Awaken Baked
many resources so while I can sit there and be like, oh, well, maybe I didn't feel I maybe I didn't feel privileged growing up. Well, bitch, when I look back, I was so blessed in so many fucking ways and not everybody is in that way. So that being said.
00:15:01
Awaken Baked
I'm trying to stop holding so much like resentment or dare I say hatred for people that I in the past have deemed to be like very flawed. Now, again, we're not talking about some fucking ditty type bitches, anyone who's an abuser, anyone who is like scum of the fucking earth.
00:15:17
Awaken Baked
But I guess if you're not perfect, I'm gonna try to cut you some fucking slack. I guess if you handled situations completely differently than I would have handled it, I'm gonna try to just not have any feelings about you in general, rather than having negative feelings.
00:15:32
Awaken Baked
Because in that same breath of I don't actually know what your life is like behind closed doors and the conversations you're having and what you're doing and how you move. That can also be said for people who present like the whole package online people who present to be morally correct but behind closed doors cheat on their partner suck as a parent are hypocritical as fuck.
00:15:50
Awaken Baked
So I'm really trying to work on like balancing just being more mindful. Because what if I'm out here like judging somebody because I think like, oh, well, they've done XYZ that I think is bad. And then I think another person is doing something all the right ways. And oh, I really look up to them. And then all of a sudden it comes out like they're a fucking dirty rat. No good scoundrel. And then I'm just sitting here like, well, who's even good in the world?
00:16:12
Awaken Baked
Like, regardless of how you feel about Selena Gomez, I'm sorry, I have to fucking bring this up. The White House posting her is very scary because that they're just attacking a private citizen for their freedom of speech and causing somebody like that they took it out of context and nobody was saying.
00:16:31
Awaken Baked
Oh, if you've murdered someone or like um R word, can I say the R word? I don't want to trigger anybody, but R worded somebody and you know, you have to be deported. Like that just is so far from what she was talking about. And I just feel like we have gotten so far from empathy that we are now like purposefully putting people's lives in danger and like ignoring and almost gaslighting what we know we are seeing with our own two eyes. And I think there's a huge difference from people saying, I can't stand when celebrities or billionaires cry on social media versus like the White House posting her like that, honestly, or like harassing her and then people twisting the narrative in this crazy fucked up way. Also kind of making it seem like all immigrants are bad people or are dangerous. Like that's what the fucking White House was doing in my opinion. Allegedly. Allegedly. I guess after all of that happened with like the White House posting that and seeing how it basically started like a random mini war that didn't need to exist. Like revolving Selena Gomez when there's like actual fucking issues happening in the world.
00:17:32
Awaken Baked
it's
History & Social Media's Educational Role
00:17:33
Awaken Baked
kind of like what made this kind of episode really come to fruition of me thinking about, okay, I want to talk about people kind of losing the plot and people kind of like not having kindness or like, I don't know, love in their heart. And then I watched Madison's Brown, Madison's Madison Brown's video about empathy. And it just changed really like,
00:17:53
Awaken Baked
but my whole my I don't I guess my whole approach to this because now I'm like maybe I need to do some more work. Maybe I need to exhibit some more empathy because I do judge people pretty harshly. I just feel like I have really high standards. And I don't want to change that. But instead of having high standards, and then if you don't meet those standards, thinking you're a bad person, what if I just like don't think about you? What if I'm just like you're on your own path and it's not part of mine?
00:18:16
Awaken Baked
So yeah, thank you very much Madison Brown for inspiring today's episode. You guys can find her on YouTube and her name is spelled M-A-D-Y S-O-N and then Brown. Make sure you check out her music too. It's also the intro, like so her intro to her videos is her music. It's so cool.
00:18:32
Awaken Baked
And then before I end this episode, I know I've been shitting on social media and how it's like rotting our brains and like ruining our empathy, but social media has taught me a lot of things that school did not and that the American education system has tried to keep from a lot of us, especially us white people. So one of the things that I recently learned, and this is from the same content creator that I talked about last time, chemistry or chem possible.
00:18:57
Awaken Baked
And she recently taught me about the women's Air Force service pilots or the Wasp, which were the black female aviators in World War Two. Well, OK, they weren't just black. There actually were only a couple of the black women. But that's what I want to talk about, because a lot of people didn't even know that the Wasp.
00:19:12
Awaken Baked
program or the WASP unit existed, let alone that there were black women a part of it. Now, unfortunately, that is because the white women tried to like kind of kick them out and suppress their role in it. Big fucking shock. Not just the white women, just white people, but the bitches too, of course.
00:19:28
Awaken Baked
There's actually only two documented black women that were in the World War II female aviators. Now, we do think that there are one or two more. I just don't have their names, but I do have the two names, Marie McGee, and then I also have Willa Brown. Now, Willa Brown is really important because Yes, she was an instructor. They did not let her fly. However, she was the first black woman America like American black woman to get her pilots pilots license and to run for Congress in the 1940s, which is fucking huge. Like how did she was the first of multiple things. And then a lot of people don't even know her story.
00:20:04
Awaken Baked
And then as I was like kind of reading some of like the comments and like the discussion that was going on from the post, a lot of people were like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I didn't even know that there was a Women's Air Force Service pilot unit, let alone that there were black women in it. So I just feel like this is kind of a hidden gem. And I wanted to highlight that before we ended this episode, because while social media is crazy, and it is insane out here, right? It has taught me a lot of things. And this is one of them. And it's brought me to a lot of creators that have helped me learn these things.
00:20:31
Awaken Baked
So shout out to you, Madison Brown. Thank you for inspiring this episode. And shout out to you, chemistry, real black history on TikTok for inspiring all of my black history topics. And shout out to you guys for listening and letting me rant like I love to do. I really appreciate that we can all have this as like a safe space to just like I say we, I can't hear what y'all are saying, but in my heart and in my mind, I'm like, oh yeah, they're feeling this. I just know if you're listening to this, it's definitely reaching the right people. So thank you so much for your time. Please tell your friends, tell your grandma, and as always, stay high.