The mobile phone in Greek Society, an “extension”to the human identity
The mobile phone is not a “Greek invention”, and it was never used extensively when it first appeared in the market place approximately 20 years ago.These facts are fully understandable if one takes into consideration that Greece is not an industrially developed country,and at the same time its socio-economic structures are not comparable to the highly developed and multidimensional systems which are in place in the developed countries of Western Europe, in the United States and in Japan. Nevertheless, during the last five years, Greek citizens of all ages and economic backgrounds have endorsed the mobile phone in their every day life to such a degree that it has evolved into an addiction and a paranoia in contrast to what exists in the developed societies of the world.I assume that there are many reasons for this extreme facet concerning the use of the mobile phone in Greece;we shall examine here three of these reasons.
The following lines from Chapter 21 of the children΄s tale “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint Exupery(1900-1944), describe the conversation between the “wise” fox and an “alien” boy,the little prince,explaining to the young boy the true meaning of life.The French writer in this story has used the personality of the “alien” boy to present us with many truths about our lost innocence and the opportunities we still have to come to respect once again the “sanctity” of life. The illustrations in the book are the writer΄s.
The following verses have been taken from the poetic work “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran(1883-1931), a modern poet who greatly influenced the generation of the 60s in the West. He helped this generation in its existential efforts to understand better the meaning of life and the meaning of human relations beyond the established social roles and morality.
Having taught children and young people for the last 35 years,especially children and young people with learning disabilities and behavioral problems,I want to touch on and discuss briefly a recent phenomenon,especially in developed societies,the question of teenage addiction to “chat sites”and “chat rooms” on the Internet.They spend incredible hours every day,chatting(written form) in front of a computer screen with strangers, distorting the basic social functions of interpersonal relationships,as well as the dialectic process in human evolution.This is once again,a perfect tool of “globalization”, promoting a “virtual reality” content in the minds and souls of young people.
For the last 20 to 30 years, the American public as well as people around the world, have been bombarded by the American Mass Media (A.M.M.) about how democratic American culture and American politics are, and about how it is the sacred duty of every American citizen to protect the democratic ideals of their “Constitution”. That it is their natural god-given “right” to export these American humanistic ideals to the rest of the world, even if this is accomplished by the power of force and economic domination. The A.M.M. with its formidable global network and propaganda means ranging from financial newspapers to internet services, and from television news programs to big budget Hollywood movies and T.V. shows, has been able to convince, mostly Americans, that there is no ideological or political contradiction between a democratic nation – state and a military empire which disposes hundreds of military bases around the world, most of them located on independent foreign soil. I believe the same type of political dilemma and ideological contradiction have existed in the leftist political movements whose leadership promoted the idea of social revolution in order to acquire political hegemony. In both instances, the ideological contradictions are so enormous that the societies affected have had to accept a life of “virtual reality” in almost every aspect of their existence, with dire consequences to their long term welfare, their social cohesion and balance.