It goes without saying\nthat the world we are living now has becoming smaller due the\ninterconnectedness of its population. People are connected to each other in an\nunlimited, extreme and tremendous way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rapid development\nof information technology has enabled people from far distance to interact to each\nother in a matter of seconds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The advancement of the technology also has brought\ndown geographical boundaries and people can share information and ideas with\none another more widely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Various platforms of social media has widened\nthe circle of friends, partners and connections of people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistics indicates\nthat there are around 3.5 billion social media users globally while Facebook\nand Whatsapp alone are handling 60 billion massages daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at this\nphenomenon from the positive side, this advancement of information digital\ntechnology can be seen as a good sign of human development where people are becoming\nmore knowledgeable and updated with information around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter Drucker, an\nAustrian author who is described as the father of Modern Management, talked\nabout the rise of knowledge worker\nas the primary unit of the contemporary information and innovation-based\nknowledge society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But on a more critical\nnote, there are a few worrying trends on the impact of social media on society.\nTwo most pertinent aspects that digital information technology has left great\nimpact are social and epistemological. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the social\naspect, the digital advancement has created what is called \u2018social displacement\u2019 where time spent in\nsocial media sites is replacing the \u2018face to face\u2019 time especially for close\nfriends and family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research findings show\nthat there was a decline of social interaction especially among the teens due\nto the increased digital media use. The study also found that adolescents who spent\nthe most time on social media and the least time in face-to-face social\ninteractions reported the most loneliness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other psychological impacts of excessive\nsocial media usage are depression, anxiety, body image, bullying, fear of\nmissing out and sleep quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the issue\nconcerning epistemology and knowledge, the question raised is that does the\nabundant of information necessarily bring us to wisdom, which is the highest\nand virtuous level of human knowledge? We recall the saying of Wilson, the\nAmerican biologist E.O Wilson that \u201cWe are drowning with information while\nstarving for wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wisdom implies\nsystematic, balanced, and harmonious state of human understanding from the\ninformation that they receive. It is regarded as the highest level of knowledge\ndue to its virtuous nature in grasping universal knowledge and recognizing the\nproper places of things in the worldview scheme. Wisdom is regarded as one of\nthe cardinal virtues by the sages in the past. Plato, the early\nGreek philosopher, said that wisdom is knowledge that is pure, eternal,\nimmortal, unified, and unchanging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Qur\u2019an regards wisdom as a highest gift from\nGod and closely connected with goodness \u201cHe grants wisdom to whom He pleases\nand he to whom wisdom is granted receives indeed a benefit overflowing; but\nnone will grasp the message but men of understanding. (Qur\u2019an, Surah al-Baqarah\n2:269)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hence the question\nremains, how does the abundant of information that we get in this highly\ndigitalized world can be transformed into wisdom? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the obstacles\nof this process is that social media, due to its open and free flow system, lacks\nelement of control mechanism. How many times we experienced in a whatsapp group\nor facebook discussions, when an important message or information was posted\nand began to be discussed by members in the group, suddenly a new message came\nin and disrupted the flow of the original discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, due to disparity\nof the level of knowledge among members of the group, there are also imbalances\nin the content of the discussion especially when everybody can express whatever\nthey wish from the most simple matter to the most difficult one. This is not yet taking into account those who\nleft group due dissatisfaction, emotion and anger especially when political\nissues come to the fore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this nature of\ndiscussion, not only it is challenging to arrive at wisdom as far as social\nmedia is concerned, it may also lead to the contrary namely confusion and error\nin understanding and knowledge especially when information that take place are\ncontradictory and false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In sum, it is of course\ntoo ambitious to expect that digital technology and social media to lead human\nbeing towards wisdom since they are only technical means that keep changing\nover time. But since this means has left\ngreat impact to the life of the people especially the new generations and is\nslowly replacing the traditional way of educating and imparting knowledge, it\nis indeed something worth contemplating. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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