The World Has Become a Village!

The world has become a village!

Internet and social media have changed our lives.

Yes, it is true, our world has shrunk, but is it really like the village of old? In the traditional village, the people knew each other very well, from crib to grave. They knew the details of everyone’s lives, but also depended on their neighbor on a daily basis. Most of the time, there was no threat from those around. They even entrusted their children to one another and shared much personal time and space together. Above all, they shared both grief as well as joy face to face, for the closeness of space facilitated that.

The authors of this article don't believe that the "modern village" of the Internet will ever be able to replicate that, but we see a lot of value in the social network, which the Internet has provided; personally, over the last few years, we have managed to foster new friendships, reinvigorate old ones and remain connected with family and friends not only across the U.S. but also across the world. News continues to travel as fast as the speed of light to and fro family and friends, while live chats have removed the need for letter-writing and eliminated expensive phone calls. We can now do face-to-face Internet chats on our computers and even "facetime" on our iPhones or iPads. We can read newspapers from across the world, listen to radio, view TV programs and watch cultural and educational videos on YouTube, or podcasts on iTunes on almost everything across continents. We can even buy things online from remote places in the world and have them shipped to us instantly.

On the spiritual front, the Internet has provided the constant flow of spiritual information on a daily basis. The village church bell has been replaced by the daily reminders of the Church's feasts and parish-related activities through live calendars on Facebook and Twitter. People now can view the Divine Liturgy live, listen to religious radio programming and watch videos from religious events around the world. Religious education has been enhanced by online classes, lectures and multimedia presentations, all readily available at any moment.

But all of this advancement comes at a cost: The Internet is not only about faith and education. Right alongside the wonderful things we can experience, appear also down right demonic things. Where you search for the life of a saint, other things might also pop-up that are contrary to what you are trying to see.

People surfing the net have to exercise greater personal discipline in order to prevent themselves from falling into the abyss of the passions. Our souls are sensitive and fragile. It is safer to walk around the streets of our big cities-spiritually speaking, than browse the Internet carelessly even inside our own homes. Many people lured by the apparent privacy the net provides have fallen into sexual addictions and other vices and damaging habits.

But the net is not so private. Most people do not realize that every search they do is forever recorded on Google's servers. Everything they watch on the Internet is saved on the records of their service provider. More than that, many hackers are out there trying to get access of your personal information and use it for unholy reasons - the less you give out the safer you are.

In the traditional village of old, people looked out for each other and helped the neighbor in his/her need because they shared both culture and space. Today, culture is an elusive thing and your friends on Facebook cannot do much for you, if you were to fall prey to a deceiver or hacker. You may share cyberspace with your friends, but you are still separated by physical distance.

And how about the waste of time? The vastness of the net can absorb you. It can swallow your precious time and devour it. Workers could be surfing instead of producing. Students could be twittering instead of studying. Parents could become lost in cyberspace instead of supervising their children. Youths could be isolating themselves instead of socializing and playing.

But the net is here to stay! In fact, it will become even more important with time as technology advances and provides even better use of the connection among people. The question is not whether you should get on the net or not; the question is how to use it in a safe and prudent way.

Authors:

Efstratios Papageorgiou

Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou

Marietta, GA