PHENOMENA like young men and even
women already taking
beer as early as 6 in the morning in convenience stores, seminarians
hooked on social media but cannot master the Latin declensions even
after one year of classes, etc., are getting rampant these days.
They indicate a big, worrying shift not only in behavior
but also of attitudes and values that is now asking to be regulated
properly. This is a challenge for everyone. Of course, the elders and
those in authority—parents, teachers, clergy, public officials—should
take the lead.
Those call center workers are inverting their days into
night, and nights into days. To some extent this can be done and is
necessary. But identifying the limits, and respecting basic,
unchangeable values can be a tricky problem. They tend to invert
things indiscriminately.
Those young seminarians remiss in their academic
requirements while immersed in cyber distractions are just a thumbnail
image of a widening problem besetting our youth today. Obviously, the
computers and the internet can stimulate their thinking, but they can
also stimulate other unwelcome practices in them.
The predicament actually has deeper causes and needs to be
framed within a wider perspective. Pope Emeritus Benedict hits it
bull’s eye when he said in his encyclical “Caritas in veritate”
(Charity in the truth):
“Technological development can give rise to the idea that
technology is self-sufficient when too much attention is given to the
‘how’ questions, and not enough to the many ‘why’ questions underlying
human activity.” (70)
This is the problem we have to tackle. We are slowly being
lulled and intoxicated by the many wonders of the technological
potentials. We are being detached from our true human foundation as we
are slowly being made into slaves, victims and preys of the predatory
side of our increasingly technological culture.
With this frame of mind, our grip of reality hardly goes
beyond what is instantly practical, pleasurable, popular. We get
hooked to a knee-jerk, Pavlovian way of reacting, without giving any
thought to long-range effects. We have been deceived by a modern
Trojan horse.
We get restricted to the material and sensual aspects of
our life, forgetting the spiritual and supernatural. We find it harder
nowadays to pray, to find leisure time with family and friends, etc.
We get prodded to act without giving due attention to thinking and
planning.
In its wake, we can find the debris of disorder not only
in the physical and external order, but also and more seriously in the
internal side, since our sense of values and priorities are pressured
to go haywire.
In short, we are being emptied of our substance as persons
and as children of God, and are massaged to become hollow automatons,
reacting only to external or mechanical stimuli, and not anymore
acting from a soul.
For sure, technology offers us a lot of advantages. As the
Pope Emeritus said, technology “draws us out of our physical
limitations and broadens our horizon.” But we have to make sure that
technology is used properly, that is, directed by a solid sense of
moral responsibility on our part.
It should not just be allowed to fascinate us with its
many possibilities. The immense sense of freedom that it gives should
be accompanied by a well-grounded sense of responsibility.
Therefore, we have to work out a program of formation on
the “ethically responsible use of technology.” This obviously will
require an interdisciplinary approach, since the requirements of our
spiritual and material dimensions, of faith and science should be met.
There can be the usual learning-curve involved here, where
the beginning of the process would involve a lot of effort,
investments, the mess of the trial-and-error or the experimentation
stage, etc. But the basic principles and goals should be made clear.
Technology should serve us in our objective needs, and not
the other way around. It should make us better persons, better parents
and children, better workers and students.
Most of all, it should make us better children of God, who
know how to live the fullness of charity in the very midst of our
mundane and temporal affairs that now rely a lot on technology.
The program of formation should focus on how virtues can
be pursued and continually developed amid many competing values. The
skill of discernment should be enhanced. When to say, yes and go, and
when to say, no and stop and reject, should be learned.
Again for Christians, the ultimate test is whether the use
of technology will make us be more like Christ! Short of that, we open
ourselves to danger.
beer as early as 6 in the morning in convenience stores, seminarians
hooked on social media but cannot master the Latin declensions even
after one year of classes, etc., are getting rampant these days.
They indicate a big, worrying shift not only in behavior
but also of attitudes and values that is now asking to be regulated
properly. This is a challenge for everyone. Of course, the elders and
those in authority—parents, teachers, clergy, public officials—should
take the lead.
Those call center workers are inverting their days into
night, and nights into days. To some extent this can be done and is
necessary. But identifying the limits, and respecting basic,
unchangeable values can be a tricky problem. They tend to invert
things indiscriminately.
Those young seminarians remiss in their academic
requirements while immersed in cyber distractions are just a thumbnail
image of a widening problem besetting our youth today. Obviously, the
computers and the internet can stimulate their thinking, but they can
also stimulate other unwelcome practices in them.
The predicament actually has deeper causes and needs to be
framed within a wider perspective. Pope Emeritus Benedict hits it
bull’s eye when he said in his encyclical “Caritas in veritate”
(Charity in the truth):
“Technological development can give rise to the idea that
technology is self-sufficient when too much attention is given to the
‘how’ questions, and not enough to the many ‘why’ questions underlying
human activity.” (70)
This is the problem we have to tackle. We are slowly being
lulled and intoxicated by the many wonders of the technological
potentials. We are being detached from our true human foundation as we
are slowly being made into slaves, victims and preys of the predatory
side of our increasingly technological culture.
With this frame of mind, our grip of reality hardly goes
beyond what is instantly practical, pleasurable, popular. We get
hooked to a knee-jerk, Pavlovian way of reacting, without giving any
thought to long-range effects. We have been deceived by a modern
Trojan horse.
We get restricted to the material and sensual aspects of
our life, forgetting the spiritual and supernatural. We find it harder
nowadays to pray, to find leisure time with family and friends, etc.
We get prodded to act without giving due attention to thinking and
planning.
In its wake, we can find the debris of disorder not only
in the physical and external order, but also and more seriously in the
internal side, since our sense of values and priorities are pressured
to go haywire.
In short, we are being emptied of our substance as persons
and as children of God, and are massaged to become hollow automatons,
reacting only to external or mechanical stimuli, and not anymore
acting from a soul.
For sure, technology offers us a lot of advantages. As the
Pope Emeritus said, technology “draws us out of our physical
limitations and broadens our horizon.” But we have to make sure that
technology is used properly, that is, directed by a solid sense of
moral responsibility on our part.
It should not just be allowed to fascinate us with its
many possibilities. The immense sense of freedom that it gives should
be accompanied by a well-grounded sense of responsibility.
Therefore, we have to work out a program of formation on
the “ethically responsible use of technology.” This obviously will
require an interdisciplinary approach, since the requirements of our
spiritual and material dimensions, of faith and science should be met.
There can be the usual learning-curve involved here, where
the beginning of the process would involve a lot of effort,
investments, the mess of the trial-and-error or the experimentation
stage, etc. But the basic principles and goals should be made clear.
Technology should serve us in our objective needs, and not
the other way around. It should make us better persons, better parents
and children, better workers and students.
Most of all, it should make us better children of God, who
know how to live the fullness of charity in the very midst of our
mundane and temporal affairs that now rely a lot on technology.
The program of formation should focus on how virtues can
be pursued and continually developed amid many competing values. The
skill of discernment should be enhanced. When to say, yes and go, and
when to say, no and stop and reject, should be learned.
Again for Christians, the ultimate test is whether the use
of technology will make us be more like Christ! Short of that, we open
ourselves to danger.
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