By Mathew Thankachen O.Praem. –
(This article is written in the context of various misuses of mobile phones in a time of Corona where gadget is becoming indispensable in every aspect of life including e-learning. While it brings untold miseries of stress and tension among the students’ community and of parents, nevertheless, the corporates and mobile companies bloom, my humble proposal is to include the ’Use and Misuse’ of this gadget’ in the school syllabi.)
Man creates culture and in turn, the culture recreates man – his values, attitudes and behavior. In other words, the personality and destiny of man to a great extent is determined by the culture in which he/ she lives. The very etymology of the word ‘Culture’ originates from the Latin “Cultura’ which means to cultivate. This word hence denotes active involvement of man in creating and promoting a psycho-social infrastructure that is screened, weeded out and added to with each generation for the welfare of humanity.
Normally, men cultivate to reap good harvest; what if the Satan sows weed in the midst of seeds in such a way one cannot distinguish good from evil? If educationists and spiritual leaders don’t help the present generation to discern and adopt, the end product will be, in the words of Pope John Paul II, “the culture of death” that we already begin to taste even in India, the supposed cradle of spirituality.
In a world of multi-media, migration and Liberalization, no culture can stand aloof. Certain feast like ‘Valentine Day ‘which is akin to the Indian culture, hence, finds hard to be imbibed into our way of life. Yet, they thrive in. All the more, just like a healthy body resists the innumerable germs of diseases from the atmosphere; a healthy mind can withstand the negative impact imparting from the cultural mobility. The concept of “global village” and “migration” accelerates cultural mobility.
Encountering different cultures helps to “weed out” the unwanted elements from one’s own culture without a conscious revolution or structural struggles, promoting growth of each other’s culture. Their association with the home land bring along such “transnational culture” along. Today, the ‘global village’ is a “laboratory” in which “transnational culture” of all the continents reacts and interacts while still holding firm to some of the traditions which a nation or ethnic group alone can claim of their own.
The Make-Believe World
The media-makers have a great role to present what is the best for the present and for the future generation and the teacher’s community is called to prepare the young generation in such a way that they absorb and adopt only those values which promotes the culture of life. In this respect, education is the only way – an education that promotes critical and creative thinking, evaluating the values and culture of the prevalent society.
Precisely so, the Catholic Church ventures in the field of ‘social communication’ as its mission and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has already taken the practical steps to train the clergy and the youth in this field. It is worthwhile to note that the voice of the Church is not effectively reflected in the socio- political scenario of India. It is equally sad to note that the ‘Mobile culture’ is shattering the backbone of Indian society and its social-net work.
Family is the basic unit of society. Many divorces and elopement is brought about mainly by the mobile phone culture. It is becoming a source of division among husband, wife and children. Most of the men-folk are working abroad. Children often go to schools or colleges. The house stuffed up with all material comforts and electronic gadgets, some of the women folk often enter into “chat” with strangers which gradually grows into intimate relationship. The end result, by the time, the husband arrives; the wife will have eloped with another man. The ‘Missed calls” gradually slips into “Mrs. Call”. The mobile culture also is misused for “organized crimes”, although the same gadget comes to handy for its very proof to catch the culprit.
The Negative Impact
Nevertheless, the million blessings in the hands of a mature personality turn out many a curse in the hands of immature youth. Just like the food given to a baby is different from that of a man, the knowledge acquired should be in proportion to the physical and mental age of a child. In a survey undertaken in our school, I found some family possessed 4 or more mobile phones and 99 percent in this fishing hamlet has mobile phones in their families.
Some of the small children who have seen the “Blue movies” through the influence of the peer group told me of their untold miseries of “suicidal complex” for the scenes they never thought of watching. Their age doesn’t suit to digest the mental/ moral impact the gadget created in them. On the other, those addicted to it cannot live without it, enslaved by this gadget. The youth also are “blackmailed” by the customers for loading the mobiles with obscene movies for huge amounts. Some over smart youth use them for “sting operation” in the lady’s toilets for “black mailing them”. Thus, sex racket is yet another evil culture spreading in the societies. Besides the radiation effect which seldom the users bothered about, the mobiles come handy to the unemployed youth to make fast money through “organized crimes” and “rented hooliganism”.
A gadget meant to create a “network of worldwide relationship”, some of the users are often found turning out “pure egoists”, fully “engrossed in”, oblivious of any relationship around, not even able to identify their parents or teachers who passes by. Such being the impact of the mobile phones on the personality, the society needs to collectively think to reduce the negative impact of this “mobile culture” on man and society.
In a recent survey conducted among the priests, it was found more than 90 percent owns the mobile phones. The companies are flourishing just like “drug mafias” in Mexico or elsewhere. To have a mobile is an “addiction” of every youth. Nowadays, “sex- education” as part of “curriculum” is widely discussed. I think, it is high time to include “role of Communication media” – its use and misuse with a wider context of “promoting the “culture of life”.