(Conference Paper, PHAVISMINDA Conference, University of San Carlos, 2014)
This
paper is an attempt to investigate virtual reality and online social media. It tackles the power and limits of online
technology, analyzes the importance of online social media to democratic
citizenship, and its capacity to create wealth in the consumer world. However,
it also argues that online relationships somehow reduce humans into cyborgs and
more fundamentally, it asserts that online technology – that flat world[1]
phenomenon as Thomas Friedman calls it – has only increased the huge divide
between rich and poor.
It is impossible to regulate the
internet and determine its content. The danger that online exposure brings does
not only come from the presence of obscene materials but from the lack of
critical thinking therein. Although there are mature persons online who act
with caution and care, most young people, however, in search of attention, tend
to reveal too much of themselves in the internet without understanding that
they are making themselves potential victims of abuses and bullying. Thomas
Friedman in his highly celebrated The
World is Flat echoes this sentiment:
“In a flat world, you
can’t run, you can’t hide, and smaller and smaller rocks are turned over. Live
your life honestly, because whatever you do, whatever mistakes you make, will
be searchable one day.” (Friedman 2005, 185)
The exposure of young teenagers to
online social media also exerts some influence on the kind of values that they
embrace and develop. Crucial to the individual is the formation of his sense of
social commitment. This is not apparent in the internet since what is available
in social networking sites are mostly selfish and vain self-projections. While
there is nothing wrong in self-expression, it is also important to be able to
develop a more mature attitude toward things. A clear moral perspective is
important in order not to diminish a person’s sense of self when one exposes
himself or herself publicly. Friedman notes quite rightly:
“There is plenty to
worry about in this future, from kids being lured by online sexual predators
through their cell phones to employees spending too much time playing mindless
phone games, to people using their phone cameras for all sorts of illicit
activities.” (Friedman 2005, 198)
In itself, the internet is not evil. It
is the information that one puts in the internet and how that information is
used that determines its value and purpose. Technology is nothing but a tool
that propagates what is good and bad. Ultimately, people will have to be
responsible with what they put online. Generally, social media can be a means
to promote critical thinking, the common good and pluralist values. The value
of freedom comes from how one uses it in order to form one’s concept of the
good. Any freedom that harms one’s self or another is its aberration. For
obvious reasons, the lack of regulation, protocol and clear moral norms online
make the online environment a fertile ground for the malice and ill-intent of
unscrupulous cabals and other criminal elements that prey on the innocent.
Cyborgs and Authentic Human Relations
Can people develop authentic human
relationships online? While the dangers may be apparent, human commitment takes
its roots from different angles. A simple gesture can sow the seed of a serious
relationship that lasts a lifetime. It is wrong to say then that everything
that happens online is bereft of substance and authenticity. It does not make
you less of a human person when you use some chat room or when you use the
online messenger service. Beyond the need to cure boredom, expressing human
feelings using the channel of this modern day means of social communication is
also quite an experience worth considering.
Dr. Michio Kaku’s 1997 book Visions elaborated on the possibility of
man to cyborg relationships. In a way, human beings are so attached to their
gadgets that they forget the dividing line between truth and fiction. This
infatuation with the sweetness of modern existence has put to task our commonly
held notions of human relations. Dr. Kaku writes:
“Artificial
intelligence envisions providing a robot with the capacity to ‘love’ its
master, which would increase its commercial success and acceptability by the
owner…when you bring one into your house, it will understand that you’re the
person it’s there for, and that it had better keep you happy…It will care how
you feel about its actions. It will try to please you in an apparently selfless
manner because it will get a thrill out of this positive reinforcement. You can
interpret this as a kind of love.” (Kaku 1997, 91)
Our attachment to our mobile devices is
like our attachment to some robot. These devices have replaced many things in
our lives. They have also become powerful. They control everything in us. While
we use gadgets and computers according to our specifications and compatibility
requirements because these are tools designed to perform a particular function,
the reality that we have been overly dependent on them is undeniable. We have
actually fallen in love with them.
But computers do not have feelings. We
cannot fall in love with a gadget. It is not love but manipulation. Love
requires caring for someone and some form of reciprocity. We need computers but
computers do not need us in order to function fully and performs its tasks. For
instance, any new OS does not breathe fresh air the way humans do. The OS
cannot become weary, bored or get tired listening to some useless stories. At
the end of the day, we still seek the intimate presence of someone because
being so in love with some mobile device does not really make any sense.
Michael Hyde argues:
“All of us are cyborgs
to some degree. It cannot be otherwise. The call of technology is embedded in
our very existence. Day in and day out we find ourselves jacked into the
instrumental matrix of the world of know-how. When was the last time you spent
a day totally disconnected to any piece of technology?” (Hyde 1995, 57)
The essence of real commitment is our
face-to-face encounters with people. This means being able to live with them,
suffer with them, and understand more what they are going through. For example,
it can be said that any technology is nothing but a medium to make possible
that contact with a real individual. A person is an embodied being, which means
that his or her emotions are real insofar as these are expressions of bodily
needs. When one feels hungry or thirsty, only something that is tangible
satisfies this need. We have to be responsible for some person in a concrete
way. Thus, responsibility, in this sense, goes beyond what is merely a virtual
experience. But what is a virtual experience? Friedman says:
“By virtual, the
process of shaping, manipulating, and transmitting this digitized content can
be done at very high speeds, with total ease, so that you never have to think
about it – thanks to all the underlying digital pipes, protocols and standards
that have now been installed.” (Friedman 2005, 188-189)
In a classroom situation, for example,
there is a deepening of relationship when the teacher meets his students. While
knowledge and information can be imparted through technology-based tools, there
is no replacement for the real experience of hearing, seeing and communicating
personally with the instructor. The classroom experience implies a sense of
participation, a sense of being-with. As such, face-to-face encounters are
crucial in the formative function of education. Hyde explains:
“The relationship
between technology and community is rooted first and foremost in the pragmatic
workings of language. A conversation between two people, sitting face to face,
and who are trying to discuss matters in a sincere, intelligible, appropriate
and truthful way defines the simplest and politically purest form of free and
respectful communion.” (Hyde 1995, 60)
The Politics of Social Media
According to Michael Hyde, “perhaps
the most dramatic illustration of this point is found in the literature
concerned with assessing how well the electronic media serves the institution
of democratic politics.” (Hyde 1995, 62) Online social media is a potent
political tool. It is an instrument that enables parties and stakeholders in
any democratic forum or public sphere to reach out and enhance the awareness of
people and to develop in them a clearer sense of nationhood. It thus forms a
huge part of building one’s sense of democratic citizenship.
Will Kymlicka maintains, for instance,
“that people should happily embrace the call of democratic citizenship because
the life of an active citizen is indeed the highest life available to us.”
(Kymlicka 2002, 294). More than that, we must also carry the burden to protect
this highest form of life, which entails, among others, using all means
possible in order to secure its perpetual enjoyment. The power of citizenship
is something that comes from this shared aspiration.
The Arab Spring is a vital example of
this power and how by means of online social media, people can successfully
topple some abusive regimes. Knowing the danger it can bring to vested
political interests, powerful states like China, implement strict censorship on
social media and shut down various sites for fear of inciting rebellion against
the ruling party. Mobile technology has kept strong states on their toes. The
radical call toward more freedom online forms part, I believe, of the liberty
of the moderns, which involve, “the unimpeded pursuit of happiness in one’s
personal occupations and attachments through the exercise of freedom from the
exercise of political power.” (Ibid., 295) Thus,
“The ‘mobile me’
revolution will be complete when you can move seamlessly around the town, the
country, or the world with whatever device you want. When this is fully
diffused, the ‘mobile me’ will have its full flattening effect, by freeing
people to truly be able to work and communicate from anywhere to anywhere with
anything.” (Friedman 2005, 196)
Hyde argues that “we are destined to
hear and respond to the call of technology. And the quicker the better,
especially if you hope to survive in a climate that may just well be a stage in
the evolutionary struggle of survival of the fittest.” (Hyde 1995, 65) There
are no clear democratic ground rules for cyber-space. By means of blogs, tweets
and online posts, people from cause-oriented groups, including individuals, can
launch attacks against powerful political personalities. Political scandals
become viral overnight and these affect the mindset of people and can change
the fortunes of any powerful person.
What online social media has made possible
then is some sort of a middle-class revolution. While the issues concerning
equality, social justice and human rights do not reach the grassroots or the
masses who are most of the time the vulnerable victims of inequality and socio-cultural
hegemony, this middle class revolution has brought forth greater
conscientization mainstream through the use of technology.
Capitalism and Social Media
We live in the digital age. According
to Friedman, “by digital, work flow revolutions, all analog content and
processes – everything from photography to entertainment to communication to
word processing to architectural design to the management of my home lawn
sprinkler system – are being digitized and therefore can be shaped, manipulated,
and transmitted over computers, the Internet, satellites, or fiber-optic
cable.” (Friedman 2005, 188)
The use of information has advanced the
greater cause of human well-being in various ways, including the convergence of
talents, innovation, and technology globally. It has the potent force to bridge
the gap between rich and poor, and transfer opportunities without the necessity
of physically moving people. This great “sorting out” as Friedman would like to
call it has essentially defined the new norm for the century. Friedman writes:
For all of these
reasons, the ceilings, walls, and floors that will define us in the future are
likely to be blended models. That is, traditional nation-states, governments,
corporations, and news organizations will have to work together with emergent
networks and virtual communities and companies to gradually hammer out some new
norms, new boundaries, for operating in the flat world. (Friedman 2005, 239)
So the world has shrunk. The creator of
the internet, who invented this modern day marvel as a cold war device, did not
see it coming as a vehicle for capitalism. But since the early part of the new century,
information technology has created vast wealth for many people, thereby giving
birth to the most prominent billionaires in the world. Tech stocks have soared
and produced fortunes before the IT bubble at the latter part of the
millennium. However, IT has regained its place in Wall Street and has continued
to propel the world's knowledge-driven economy. The digital world has
revolutionized everything.
The above is the macro perspective of a
consumption-based economy. Entrepreneurial people conduct business transactions
with ease using online platforms. While piracy remains to be a problem, most
especially in the entertainment industry, it is noticeable that online commerce
provides a venue for some people to innovate and sell their goods and ideas
online. Bill Gates, according to Friedman, envisioned Microsoft as that company
making knowledge available at one’s fingertips. However, a closer look at this
phenomenon brings to light a sad fact that has not changed for a very long
time. Somewhere, I echoed this sentiment:
“The forces that have flattened the world, notably the
computer, Netscape, the World Wide Web, outsourcing, in-sourcing, in-forming,
the search engines, the microchip, and others are not things that you can buy
in a wet market. As noble as they are, these things are instruments of business
and enterprise. Still, a flat-world economy is run by money and greed, and more
than the convergence that it seeks to achieve, the bottom line is profit and
more profit.” (PDI, May 1, 2012)
More fundamentally, online technology
has done nothing significant to decrease the gap between rich and poor. We are
still a divided world of capitalists and the working class. If philosophy were
to make an assessment on the impact of social media to the quest for a more
egalitarian society, then I believe it must make practical and bold steps in
highlighting how the information age has also widened the divide between rich
and poor. As Peter Singer says, “the philosopher who does so will have to
sacrifice some of the benefits of consumer society.”[2]
For all intents and purposes, it is
important to realize that modernity requires the embrace of novelty, scientific
innovation, pluralism, toleration, and greater freedom. However, the impact of
this knowledge-driven online economy is still to be felt by the poorest margins
of society. Data from the World Bank still indicate widespread poverty and
income inequality in the world. It does not help that those who are connected
online live in the metropolis since most rural folks are the ones suffering
from government neglect. Consumption still drive the phenomenon of information
technology, and with it, what corresponds is corporate greed.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that, “Thomas Friedman is wrong to
say that the world is always within one’s reach, or just a click away with the
use of a mouse. Think, for instance, of people who live in the poorest
provinces of the Philippines or workers who earn below the minimum wage and one
will realize that the Internet is not readily available to all,” and so,
overall, it is still a huge challenge for democratic citizens like the most of
us, for the online phenomenon does not necessarily translate to the common
good, and “this is for the simple reason that the flat-world economy that Mr.
Friedman is talking about is no more than the egocentric forces of capitalism
that continue to hound the poor masses and keep them in oblivion and disease,
ignored by their fellow human beings.”[3]
[1]
For a detailed discussion on the flat world phenomenon, see Thomas Friedman, The
World is Flat (New York: Farrah, Strauss and Giroux, 2005).
[2]
Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence and
Morality, in Social Ethics, ed. Thomas Mappes and Jane Zembaty (Boston:
Mc-Graw Hill, 2002), 403.
[3]
Christopher Ryan Maboloc, The World is
not Flat, Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 1, 2012
