I clearly and vividly remember the neighbourhood where I was born and lived for 20 years. It was St Anthony Street, Balzan (now I think it is called Birbal Street.) Houses were very small, just two or three rooms with a little yard converted into a kitchen-cum-toilet. Hearts were, however, large. People knew each other well and cared for each other. Certainly, people did gossip about each other and have spats but when push came to shove, people helped each other.

Like other neighbourhoods it was technology poor. No one had a telephone. And it was only in the very late 1950s that Toni ta’ Tona bought a television set and opened his doors for all children to sit around the ‘magic’ box which gave us enchanting pictures from far away.

Other readers must have other stories about their childhood neighbourhoods. Many today would say they hardly know who their neighbours are. I am currently living in a block of four flats. I only met one person who lives there more than once. But our neighbourhoods are technologically rich.

We now live in two neighbourhoods. One of them we do not only visit after working hours. We ‘walk’ in the streets of this neighbourhood at all times of day and night, whether we are in Malta and from overseas. We navigate its streets through mobile devices which we carry in our pockets and larger gizmos at home. This is the cyber neighbourhood.

We socialise with more friends in this space than in the physical space where our houses are situated. We share more gossip, get more information, ask for more favours, get more counselling and socialise for more hours than we do in the old-fashioned space we have to occupy because of our corporeality.

This neighbourhood is technology-driven. In the 1970s, Marshall McLuhan, who was a foremost philosopher of communication, had seen it all coming. He des­cribed it as a village, a global village, and used the term ‘village’ to describe the new condition of closeness that technology was heralding (as the village evokes images of closeness and caring.

In fact, Hillary Clinton evoked the same image in 1996 when she wrote a book called It Takes a Village that focused on the impact that community has to raise a child. In 2010, Arjun Appardurai, a contemporary socio-cultural anthropologist, des­cribed this development as “a new condition of neighbourhood”.

However, both pointed out a possible contradiction in ‘global village’, for it is a kind of neighbourhood where one is close to people who are physically far but could ironically be distant (in terms of effective interaction) from people who are spatially near.

Pope Francis returned to this theme of neighbourliness in the message released for Media Sunday, which was celebrated on June 1. While noting that it would seem that it would be easier for all to be neighbours, he pointed out some of the possible problems:

“The desire for digital connectivity can have the effect of isolating us from our neighbours, from those closest to us.”

He then posited an intriguing question about how can we be ‘neighbourly’ in our use of the communications media and in the new environment created by digital technology. He answered it innovatively by referring to the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is a parable about neighbourliness, connectivity and communications in the aural/oral world which is rich in significance for the digital world.

The violent aggressors are, for Pope Francis, the media messages primarily aimed at promoting manipulation and consumption, a clear reflection of Francis’s constant criticism of the neo-liberal mentality and economy. One could add that the media have always been one of the most potent wea­pons in war and truth its first casualty.

On the digital streets, just like on the physical roads, bullies roam. Streets, physical or virtual, were never built for bullying, but when communication is reduced to a technologically-driven, more than an intensely human activity, abuses do happen.

Technology is now making it more possible for bullies to remain anonymous. Let us take as an example one of the new digital kids on the block, that is Yik Yak. (A mere toddler when compared to the giants Ask.Fm or Snapchat, which the mainstream media branded for notoriety but are of the same age and fame of UMentioned.)

This hyper-local smartphone app, the brainchild of Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, was launched last year to serve as a message board system for college students – that’s how Facebook started, incidentally. In the hands of bullies this localised and anonymous version of Twitter unfortunately developed into an artefact of aggression. On top of cyber bulling, texting and racial slurs, two bomb threats were sent from a Massachusetts high school.

This is the cyber neighbourhood. We socialise with more friends in this space than in the physical space where our houses are situated

Bullying, incitement to racial hatred, revenge porn, bigotry and all form of stereotyping are spread by the mainstream social networks. Yik Yak pales into insignificance compared to these oversized behemoths. Anecdotal evidence sensationally spread by the media point to a dark future of abuse. The bright side, however, is that research and everyday experiences demonstrate that most people are not misusing technology or mistreating others while online. The abusers of technology will remain on the fringes. We hope these bullies will not dominate our cyber neighbourhoods.

There is an aspect of Pope Francis’ statement which I found to be particularly interesting and very original. The world of the media should not only be concerned with beauty, goodness and truth (unfortunately many lapses are easily discernible) but also with showing tenderness if we want the digital world to be “an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people”. This is similar, though it goes beyond, the noble feeling expressed by the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists about journalists’ duty to reduce harm that can potentially result from their work.

Tenderness? Our media, particularly our political media, can learn a thing or two, I suppose. Same applies to ‘common’ people who make use of the social networks. They should take note if they want their presence there to be one of neighbourhood-building.

“It is not enough to be passers-by on the digital highways, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters,” Pope Francis writes, while quickly adding that cyber streets and neighbourhoods should be places where people “can be reached both effectively and affectively”. One would expect such a statement from the master communicator himself.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt

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