This is Science Friday. I'm Irafledo. A bit later in the hour, the story of Alice Ball,

excuse me, an unsung heroin in treating leprosy in the early 1900s. There's a new short film out.

It's really interesting about her. We'll talk to the director a little bit later. But first,

have you ever come across a Facebook post or a tweet by a friend, you didn't agree with, right? You wanted to

tap out a very angry response. How many, how many of us have not wanted to do that? Well,

would you have done the same thing in real life? You know, when we hunker down in front of screens

and then we hide behind usernames, we are less likely to relate to people as individuals

and instead stick with our tribe mentality or only see things from our own point of view.

Technology was built on the promise of connecting people across space and time, creating more

community, and it certainly does that. Look at the millions,

let's say billions of people talking to one another, or maybe more precisely, at one another.

Critics say technology is also eroding an important part of what it means to be human,

talking about empathy, feelings of understanding, caring for

one another. So the question is, can the technology that divides us also play a role in fostering

empathy? That's the unknown. My next guest explores a new book, The Future of Feeling,

building empathy in a tech-obsessed world. Caitlin Yulalik Phillips, health and technology journalist joins us.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Let me do a shout out to our listeners and ask them, is technology making you less

empathetic?

Tell us about a time when technology got in the way of letting you feel or experience a different

perspective, and you can give us a call on number 844-8255 or tweet us at SciFry.

...