An earlier column touched on social conditions that weaken empathy. This column builds on that discussion by focusing on adolescents whose social habits are becoming the norm for society. The concern is not declining empathy itself, but the erosion of the conditions undergirding it. Among adolescents in Korea, troubling signs surface daily in the news: coercing peers into sexual exploitation, luring others into predatory financial schemes or perpetuating harassment in physical and digital realms. Some youth take advantage of being below the legal age of criminal responsibility and show little remorse for the consequences of their actions. While public response typically centers on blaming individuals, it may be far more instructive to ask what social arrangements and conditions engender such a diminished capacity for empathy. Digital life offers a useful starting point. Adolescents in Korea are among the most connected in the world, navigating between platforms that reward speed, brevity and reactions. These environments compress communication into fragments of text, emojis and the thr