Thursday, July 24, 2014

"The Internet Over Us!"


By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos
of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The Internet has firmly entered our lives, since a lot of people are using it, but especially all modern young people are users to such an extent that to talk about dependence is identical to talking about addictive substances - drugs, alcohol - and assistance is needed for rehabilitation by a psychologist.

The word Internet indicates "an international network of computer systems, created by connecting multiple networks worldwide for immediate information sharing for scientific, commercial, educational and recreational purposes" (George Babiniotis).

At first the Internet connected to the computer in the office and you had to sit down to open it. Then the laptop was invented, which one could have with them and carry anywhere to use. Today a person can have the Internet in their pocket by "turning a cell phone into a smartphone".

We read in the newspapers, however, that the time is coming when the Internet will be over us. "There are wearable computers, devices that are worn on the human body and, at present, are in the form of a bracelet or glasses." However, the foreseeable next step will be the gadget, electronic devices "that will be bound to the human body and in some cases interact with it, leaving behind the 'passive' device that performs commands only when someone gives them."

Yet now they have designed special electronic devices. They are "Google glasses", which are custom devices for "making videos, taking pictures and playing music", meaning that you the user can record anything and share it via the Internet, as well as "Apple iWatch", that will be worn on the hand like a watch, "and will execute the processes of the iPhone and the iPad."

Of course, all these devices are criticized for undermining the human being, destroying so-called private life, since a large amount of information will appear to dexterous people as a great risk to humanity and society (Τά Νέα, 4/3/2013). Thus is the title "The Internet Over Us!" vindicated.

Finally, with all these new technological discoveries man becomes a victimizer and victim, a dependant being, a permanent spy on the lives of others, and of course a question arises regarding the protection of our personal lives. Man is trying to become a "man-god", to attain high knowledge, something which reminds us of the luciferian and ancestral sin and the creation of the Tower of Babel, but to dominate our fellow men.

Such dangerous toys have consequences on the physical health of a person, but also on their spiritual condition. In these cases the nous of man is ruled by logic and the environment, it is dominated by thoughts, representations and the imagination, it is darkened and this reminds us of the ancestral sin from a theological standpoint. This is a fallen state, a captivity of the nous. Man is trapped by the idol of himself, self-love. Our dependence on such things is a matter for our Church and her hesychastic tradition.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "Τό ίντερνετ πάνω μας!", June 2013. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.