“Today’s college students scored 40 percent lower on a measure of empathy than their elders did,” according to a new study that demonstrates the selfish, competitive nature of the times. Obsession with social media and a highly competitive atmosphere could be reasons why “current students are less likely to agree with statements such as ‘I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective,’ and ‘I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me,’ according to the study, which was recently presented at the Association for Psychological Science in Boston.