Man was truly blessed, because God gave him sufficient knowledge so that he can rule all things all over the earth. God gave him knowledge so that he can make wise decisions, he can be a good steward of all creations, and he can create things that can preserve his life and make it more meaningful. Thus man was able to explore things around him and have found things which will be meaningful to him.
Technology plays a great role in our world nowadays. Why? It is because technology brought us to another phase of life wherein everything goes faster, causes too much convenience on our part, and giving us less work but more time for enjoyment. The number one thing that our technology has developed very well is our source of communication. Why is this so? Communication is easily overlooked, but the ability to communicate effectively is necessary to carry out the thoughts and visions of an organization to the people. The importance of speech and words whether through a paper or a voice is a communication medium to convey directions and provide synchronization. Without communication, there is no way to express thoughts, ideas and feelings. That’s why technology provided us the tools that are powerful in terms of communication like: phone, fax, email, letter, website, instant message softwares, social networking websites, and the most popular, Facebook.
Yes, we can say that communication is very important in every aspect of our life, because it helps us to link with the wider world of information and in the world. It also links us to other people all around the world and enables us to have a good relationship with them. But is there really a true relationship that is happening in the world of the facebook? Facebook is a world which is composed also of different worlds (users), but it only exists in the world of computer. It is totally different from the real world. Why? It is because in the world of facebook we can fake almost everything. We can make our ideal world for our own sake and we can make our new ego while hiding the true one. In facebook we are free to add any sort of information about ourselves, whether it is true or not, because we are confident that nobody will correct us, since they don’t know our true identity. And if this is the case, if this is how we are engaging from one another, what kind of relationship can we develop out of this idea of the reality that is usually happening in the facebook? Can we develop a true “human relationship” through this, since relationship only happens when there is actual presence and truthfulness in one another?
Max Scheler, on his theory of Person and Community describes that “Person” is universal. Therefore, by the term itself it is grounded to others or the community. For Scheler, the nature of person is always “communal” and he can never separate his self from the community because the community is already part of its essence. If we are going to apply the theory of Scheler from the world of facebook, we can say that the characters or the users from the facebook are indeed “Pesons” also, because they communicate and engaging from one another. The facebook serves as their ground of encounter, wherein they communicate from one another in a manner that they are just communicating in the real world. But according to Levinas, relationship has its own framework or structure that can only happen at the time of contact (facing the Other); facing the “totality” of the Other, which means facing the “being” of the Others (the body, manner, character, etc.). So it is not only facing the body that appears on the monitor of the computer. “Facing” is more important than in the facebook communication, because Facing is a responsibility of every person and it is through Facing that we can know the human existence of the Other. If we answer to this call (Facing), the moral person we become, but if we deny it the immoral person we become. Our identity from the others would sometimes depend on the memory that we have shared to them. The more memories that we shared, the deeper our relationship goes. But if there’s a problem in our memory, it can affect our identity, and having problems with our identity could also affect the relationships that we have. That’s why facebook as part only of computer world, it can’t give us a “settled relationship” because we are free to change our identity in anytime that we want. And since it only exists in the world of computer and not in the real world, there is a great tendency that it can be deleted, whether accidentally or not, because the world of facebook is only temporary and it has its own expiration. Therefore when your account does not functioning already, everything that you have in your account will be useless and your identity and all the relationships that you have will also vanish, because your identity depends on what you have put in your account. If your account is not functioning, you will not be capable of engaging with the others. Your memory will be lost and you’ll become nothing. Unlike in the real world, we can say that our relationship can be stable and there is no tendency for it to be erased, because our relationship in the real world is grounded in reality and it is not simply a computer program. Therefore it goes along with our existence in this world. As long as we are existing we are capable of having relationship and there is the tendency that our memory will last even until our end.
Facebook is a social networking which provides us a path to communicate to other people and to make friends with them. But an acquainted relationship, which we can only have in the real world, is much better. Why? Simply because it is so nice to make friends with other people facing their true beings, when there is a body contact. Compared to seeing only or communicating with them in the wide screen. For it is in the real world that we can attain a true and settled kind of relationship, which is moral and making us true human beings.
Technology plays a great role in our world nowadays. Why? It is because technology brought us to another phase of life wherein everything goes faster, causes too much convenience on our part, and giving us less work but more time for enjoyment. The number one thing that our technology has developed very well is our source of communication. Why is this so? Communication is easily overlooked, but the ability to communicate effectively is necessary to carry out the thoughts and visions of an organization to the people. The importance of speech and words whether through a paper or a voice is a communication medium to convey directions and provide synchronization. Without communication, there is no way to express thoughts, ideas and feelings. That’s why technology provided us the tools that are powerful in terms of communication like: phone, fax, email, letter, website, instant message softwares, social networking websites, and the most popular, Facebook.
Yes, we can say that communication is very important in every aspect of our life, because it helps us to link with the wider world of information and in the world. It also links us to other people all around the world and enables us to have a good relationship with them. But is there really a true relationship that is happening in the world of the facebook? Facebook is a world which is composed also of different worlds (users), but it only exists in the world of computer. It is totally different from the real world. Why? It is because in the world of facebook we can fake almost everything. We can make our ideal world for our own sake and we can make our new ego while hiding the true one. In facebook we are free to add any sort of information about ourselves, whether it is true or not, because we are confident that nobody will correct us, since they don’t know our true identity. And if this is the case, if this is how we are engaging from one another, what kind of relationship can we develop out of this idea of the reality that is usually happening in the facebook? Can we develop a true “human relationship” through this, since relationship only happens when there is actual presence and truthfulness in one another?
Max Scheler, on his theory of Person and Community describes that “Person” is universal. Therefore, by the term itself it is grounded to others or the community. For Scheler, the nature of person is always “communal” and he can never separate his self from the community because the community is already part of its essence. If we are going to apply the theory of Scheler from the world of facebook, we can say that the characters or the users from the facebook are indeed “Pesons” also, because they communicate and engaging from one another. The facebook serves as their ground of encounter, wherein they communicate from one another in a manner that they are just communicating in the real world. But according to Levinas, relationship has its own framework or structure that can only happen at the time of contact (facing the Other); facing the “totality” of the Other, which means facing the “being” of the Others (the body, manner, character, etc.). So it is not only facing the body that appears on the monitor of the computer. “Facing” is more important than in the facebook communication, because Facing is a responsibility of every person and it is through Facing that we can know the human existence of the Other. If we answer to this call (Facing), the moral person we become, but if we deny it the immoral person we become. Our identity from the others would sometimes depend on the memory that we have shared to them. The more memories that we shared, the deeper our relationship goes. But if there’s a problem in our memory, it can affect our identity, and having problems with our identity could also affect the relationships that we have. That’s why facebook as part only of computer world, it can’t give us a “settled relationship” because we are free to change our identity in anytime that we want. And since it only exists in the world of computer and not in the real world, there is a great tendency that it can be deleted, whether accidentally or not, because the world of facebook is only temporary and it has its own expiration. Therefore when your account does not functioning already, everything that you have in your account will be useless and your identity and all the relationships that you have will also vanish, because your identity depends on what you have put in your account. If your account is not functioning, you will not be capable of engaging with the others. Your memory will be lost and you’ll become nothing. Unlike in the real world, we can say that our relationship can be stable and there is no tendency for it to be erased, because our relationship in the real world is grounded in reality and it is not simply a computer program. Therefore it goes along with our existence in this world. As long as we are existing we are capable of having relationship and there is the tendency that our memory will last even until our end.
Facebook is a social networking which provides us a path to communicate to other people and to make friends with them. But an acquainted relationship, which we can only have in the real world, is much better. Why? Simply because it is so nice to make friends with other people facing their true beings, when there is a body contact. Compared to seeing only or communicating with them in the wide screen. For it is in the real world that we can attain a true and settled kind of relationship, which is moral and making us true human beings.
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