If you were to Google the definition of apathy, this is what you’d find as an answer via Wikipedia: Apathy (also called perfunctoriness) is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, and concern. Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, and/or passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world.
In layman’s terms – not giving a shit.
Apathy (NOT to be confused with empathy people – some of you are guilty of making that mistake) is a word that’s thrown around all the time. A buzzword, of sorts. Voter apathy, student apathy; am I ringing any bells yet? I’ve suspected for a long time that society in general has become more comfortable with not being concerned – and who can blame us?!? Let’s take a moment to think about the current state of the world we live in. Harper’s on the verge of getting back in; Trump might be running the world in a few months; ISIS, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups are murdering thousands and thousands of people everyday; crime here in Newfoundland is at it’s worse, and people are using hard drugs like never before. And I could go on, believe me. The world around us is a pretty horrible place these days. Which is exactly why we need to start giving a shit.
Like any grand movement, change begins at home, with me and you (you, in the plural sense I hope because this post will seem really pointless if a bunch of people don’t read it). I was at a wedding a few weeks ago, and the priest talked about relationship apathy, and I was like, AMEN and HALLELUJAH! Finally, a man that knows what he is talking about. (Kidding, kidding. Put down the pitchforks, men. I know you’re all pretty smart too.) Seriously though, this preacher knew what he was preaching, not gonna lie! We are all guilty of it. Me included. It’s human nature; you have to make a conscience effort to not take relationships for granted as they progress. And I don’t just mean romantic relationships either; friendships, work relationships, our family, it’s all of them. We need to get better at caring about the people in our lives. If you stop for a second and think about a recent relationship that broke down, doesn’t matter what kind of relationship, what would be the primary reason it failed? I’m willing to bet at the end of the day it’s because one, or both of you, ended up taking the relationship for granted in some way. You got lazy, stopped putting in an effort, didn’t bother to communicate, assumed the other person would continue to be there after doing something crappy because they had stuck around this long hadn’t they? Any of that sounding about right?
If we can somehow train ourselves to do a little better at being concerned about the things we can control, like relationships, the world around us would naturally improve to some extent. I’ve only opened my eyes up to this over the last couple of years, when I was forced to examine a lot of unhealthy relationships in my life. Since then, I’ve been making an honest effort to put more work into the relationships I have. That hasn’t always worked out for me, mind you. It can be exhausting and draining at times, especially if you’re doing all the giving and the other person is doing more taking. But on the plus side, I like to think I’m a better person. Aside from working harder at my own personal relationships, I’ve become kinder, less judgmental, and have a genuine concern for the society we’re currently living in, and doing what I can to help fix it.
Take a bit of that attitude and throw it into smaller things you can control – vote in a couple of weeks; go out of your way to make someone you have a relationship know that they’re important to you; find a social issue that really gets you fired up and commit to getting involved. It really IS the little things people…..they’ll always lead to greater things.
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sothisisthirtyfive 
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