By Fr. Soares Pedro, SVD
DILI, 08 may 2024 (TATOLI) – Social Media and the Internet are open spaces that can be entered by anyone, for any purpose, anytime and anywhere. As a result, various sites exist in it, both constructive and destructive.
In my reflection, I want to explore human life in today’s internet world. In the world of the internet presents various kinds of sites that are challenging and tempting. In accordance with the development of human daily life, they are able to distinguish and choose things or ideas that are more important and useful than the other way around. Humans do not automatically accept every concept or thing that is shown to them.
Information or impressions obtained from the internet also influence humans in making future plans to achieve a life goal that is certainly happy. They imagine and want the future as they want it. This makes them struggle with all their might to realize their plans and dreams for the future.
In addition, a person is experiencing a conflict in his heart, where the internet shows negative things that are different from the teachings of religion and culture that are instilled in the church and society. They are taught that violent behavior is not good, but on the internet, there are shows of violence that thrive. Of course, this will cause a conflict of values within them. This conflict will become a serious problem if it is not handled and addressed and a solution is sought.
Thus, it can be said that the internet has produced a revolution in communication models. One thing that is clear from this revolution is the virtual community. This type of communication can occur through social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and others).
Therefore, communication face to face becomes something that is neglected; Humans have become more comfortable communicating virtually than real communication, because virtual communication provides an open dialogue space with people all over the world, without boundaries. However, this virtual communication tends to make humans as closed and rigid individuals in daily interactions.
In addition, acts of violence and crime on the internet can affect people’s social behavior in a negative direction, in the form of anarchic and destructive actions. A person will grow and develop in the wrong direction, which is to become an “evil.” Therefore, the presence of the internet has marked a revolution in the development of social media and computers. By providing a broad means of information and an open space for dialogue, the internet has become an important necessity in the human world. The internet has opened up enormous learning opportunities for people everywhere. But behind that, the internet has the potential to make its users hypnotized in their world, so that they lose their personal identity and become immersed in a shadow identity, the result of the engineering of the virtual world. Then, what path should be taken?
In my opinion, everything returns to human consciousness itself in the internet. Humans must pay attention to the intention of using the internet and not forget the main task that he must do in his life. Humans must be “critical” in responding to internet offerings. The internet can be used as a learning tool that can expand human knowledge, but at the same time it can lead people to moral and moral destruction, if not used critically and responsibly. Finally, today’s people are expected to be able to make the internet a useful information medium for the future.
TATOLI
