SHILLONG: Concerns have been raised about the dangers of virtual world trespassing into the real world in the current highly digitalised era leading to ‘integrity theft’.
The issue was discussed in a seminar on new media awareness organised by the Department of Theology, Martin Luther Christian University at its campus on Thursday.
The seminar aimed at enlightening the participants on how the Christian community can adapt to the rapid technological advancement in the 21st century.
Butesen Ozukum, a trainer on church leadership and community development, spoke about how the continuous submergence of people in social media exposes them to various ills, one of them being the creation of disconnected beings or individuals whose habits change radically.
A major challenge for people living in this highly digitalised era is the disappearance of boundaries between the physical and the virtual world.
“This leads to something called an integrity theft whereby individuals’ ethics, moral values, trustworthiness, character and even religious beliefs are at stake”, he said.
There is also a blurring of lines between what is considered taboo in the real world and the digital world, he added.
For example, a person would consider stealing loathsome but would not hesitate to download a copyrighted material from the Internet, he said.
However, there is a bright side to the utilisation of media as can be seen from the examples that were cited of various social media movements like the Zapatista Movement and the Nirbhaya rape protest movement that led to effective tangible social transformations, Ozukum said.
“This is because new media avenues have the potential of reaching a wider number of people and are not as limited as mass media,” he said. ” “Another advantage of using media as a channel of change is that it is non-violent in its quest for change. It also helps in democratization of information,” Ozukum added.
