THERE’S a new addiction in
the block. It’s called internet addiction. And it’s on the rise, with
frightening speed, especially affecting young people, like kids, students and
young professionals.
They are not of the type
prone to drugs or drinks. Rather their addiction is like that of gambling. A
certain compulsion dominates them and interferes in their daily duties, wasting
a lot of time and energy, and sometimes money in the process.
They can look very decent and
normal, at least in appearance. But we know we all have feet of clay. It would
be good if we are aware of this clear and present danger and prepare ourselves
accordingly.
Early warning signs may be
deterioration of grades for students, and negligence of some basic duties for
the young professionals. Students who have been good in class suddenly turn
south in class performance. That’s because they now find it hard to concentrate
on their studies.
They often interrupt their
studies to answer the messages in their cellphones, and often check if there
are new messages. They upload photos, usually inane selfies, on social media
everyday, and comment on almost all of what their friends post in the internet.
The kids are practically taken away by the many games the internet offers.
From there, things can worsen
as users end up visiting porn websites, and by surfing aimlessly often end up
induced to do bad things. Latent weaknesses that the users are not aware of,
suddenly get activated, and if they do not have the proper defenses, then they
get swallowed up.
In other words, they are
caught in some web of distractions quite hard to extricate from, since many
sweet and irresistible rationalizations come to their mind to justify their
actuations.
The Internet offers its users
a certain sense of immediate gratification in terms of accessibility,
affordability and anonymity. When not properly motivated, these users fall for
the ease and the false sense of dominion the Internet offers.
We have to acknowledge this
social problem and do something about it. This disturbing development should
not suck us into fear and cowardice. Bad things can and should give rise to
occasions for us to grow more as a person, as a family, as a community and
society. They can enrich our humanity.
We can resort to some
immediate and stop-gap measures, like regulating the use of the Internet, using
filters, monitoring and supervising the Internet use especially for the
children.
It is said, for example, that
if you do not see your children in your own house, what you only have to do is
to turn off the Internet, and they will come out. Of course, this and the other
measures can only do so much, since the kids now are smart and can easily get
around these measures.
We should not stop simply in
the level of regulating, stopping, discouraging and other negative-leaning
measures, even if they are also indispensable. They are not meant to be
effective for long. We should face the challenge of tackling this issue in a
more positive and long-term way.
And that means that
especially for the children we have to learn how to motivate them properly,
giving them by word and example precious lessons about order, prudence,
temperance, sense of purpose.
It’s important that despite
the usual tension and conflicts, a cordial, friendly and intimate relationship
exists between them and the parents, the teachers and others with certain
authority. There should be an atmosphere of openness, trust and confidence in
this relationship. When this is absent, we have a big problem to solve.
For the older children, young
professionals and even adults, the challenge to face is how to resolve the
existential emptiness that is at the bottom of this Internet addiction and
other forms of bondage.
It is this existential
emptiness that makes people vulnerable to be swallowed up by their passions and
other weaknesses that often are hidden and sometimes masked by a façade of some
virtue.
Even those who are generally
regarded as “good and holy people” are not exempted from this predicament. In
fact, their case can be trickier and harder to handle, since they can easily
hide this problem due to the many good and impressive things they do and
accomplish.
This existential emptiness is
resolved when one is genuinely connected with God who is everything to us, our
life, our wisdom, our truth, our freedom, our love, etc. This happens when one
truly prays, and becomes, in St. Paul’s words, a spiritual man, going beyond
sentimentalism, psychology, intellectualism, professionalism, activism, etc.
There’s no other way to
tackle this issue.
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