A few of my friends decided for lent to give up social media. Some wrote that they would not a month and a half to write anything on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Snapchat, and others just stopped.
I admit that a few years ago, when this trend was in its infancy, it seemed like a bust. Social network for journalist — tool. How can the MP claim that during lent he would not meet with voters and speak in the diet, and the doctor should decide that he will not spend time to talk with patients, I thought.
However, from year to year there is growing evidence that this topic deserves reflection. A few weeks ago, 15-year-old in Spain has filed a lawsuit against the mother, accusing it of “bullying”. In the complaint, he wrote that… it took away his smartphone, because he interfered with the study. Fortunately, the court has maintained the judgment and the verdict that the task of the parent is to provide child development and the mother took the correct action for the benefit of the son. What is the problem, we clearly see, watching the teenagers on the subway, trams, buses or trains: they are addictive virtual reality. A smartphone is not a tool that serves them: they become like appendages.
Professor Andrzej Silberteich (Andrzej Zybertowicz) drew attention to the fact that the Internet differs from previous instruments used by man, so that he is able to enslave us. The sociologist offers almost the same radical method of treatment as a rejection of the use of Twitter and Facebook during lent: he says that it is time to try to slow technological development that mankind has managed to curb what is happening at the intersection of modern technology and personality. Silberteich warns that if we don’t do this, we approach the point when the digital world, the Internet and artificial intelligence get the upper hand over man.
A similar caveat I’ve discovered released a few weeks ago, the novel by Michal Olszewski (Michał Olszewski) “#heat”. A description of how man tries to overcome addiction and not “like”, not “charity”, not “followit”, check “status”, “traffic” or “activity rating”, to get rid of the desire to constantly be online, which turns into mania, leaves a strong impression. But, perhaps, not less the effect of the description of the life of man, the existence of which fills the Internet and social networks.
The main thing — using these tools for work and entertainment, to remain human, that is not to lose freedom. About how the Internet and social networks contribute to the growth of hatred and aggression in the public life written a lot. However, in a personal or moral terms, more importantly, not to miss the moment in which these tools will begin to deprive us of our freedom.
Ten years ago my wife and I decided to get rid of the TV. At that moment he was considered a device that steals man’s time, and thus enslaves. Now the background of smartphones based on the rejection of the habit of watching TV seems a trifling matter.
So I better understand his friends, who decided to conduct a post without social media. The Passover is a celebration of liberation from death, of evil, from everything that enslaves, maybe it’s a good theme for Easter promises to myself: try not to let the smartphone to limit our freedom.
