Published: 2025-12-30

The Limits of Empathy and Moral Diagnoses of the Contemporary World: a Case Study of a Discussion among Polish Reddit Users

Paweł Płatek Profil ORCID autora Paweł Płatek
Kultura Media Teologia
Section: Varia
DOI https://doi.org/10.21697/kmt.2025.64.15

Abstract

The study is based on the discussion thread “Czemu ludzie w internecie nie mają empatii?” published on the r/Polska subreddit. Using qualitative discourse analysis, the author examines how participants define empathy, interpret its absence, and relate this phenomenon to anonymity, hate speech, and moral responsibility in online environments. The findings reveal an ambivalent attitude toward empathy: on the one hand, users perceive its absence as a symptom of a broader communication crisis; on the other, they regard empathy as almost unattainable within the seemingly anonymous structure of the Internet. The discourse exposes a growing fatigue with digital culture, where emotional detachment has become the norm and indifference a strategy for coping with the excess of stimuli. The case study of r/ Polska demonstrates that empathy in the online context functions less as an emotion and more as a subject of social negotiation and moral reflection on the human condition in digital media culture.

Keywords:

digital empathy, online anonymity, hate speech, Internet culture, r/Polska

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Citation rules

Płatek, Paweł. “The Limits of Empathy and Moral Diagnoses of the Contemporary World: a Case Study of a Discussion Among Polish Reddit Users”. Kultura Media Teologia, vol. 4, no. 64, Dec. 2025, pp. 252–266, doi:10.21697/kmt.2025.64.15.

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