THE HUMAN PERSON AND SOCIETY
Introduction:
The relation between individual and society is very close. Essentially, “society” is the regularities,
customs and ground rules of human behavior. Its ultimate goal is to promote an adequate life for its
individuals. It creates conditions and opportunities for the all round development of its inhabitants,
despite the occasional conflicts. If a community helps the individuals in numerous ways, great men
also contribute to the people by their wisdom and experience. Thus, individuals are bound by an
intimate and harmonious bond and the conflicts they have are apparent and momentary. In a well-
ordered society, there would be lasting harmony between the two in all describable aspects.
Types of Relationships in Society:
According to Jurgen Habermas, a German philosopher, society has two main types of relationships
which are Personal and Transactional. These two categories are umbrella terms for the interactions
that happen in a community.
PERSONAL – This type of relationship is observed through a communicative action, where people
who share the same interest acknowledge and commend each other, regardless of their position.
One of its evident characteristics is valuing cooperation over competition, serving as a mutual
connection between each individual relationship.
TRANSACTIONAL – This type of relationship is observed through an instrumental or strategic
action, where people act upon an assigned objective rather than a mutual connection. Unlike a
personal relationship, it values competition over cooperation. Using teamwork based on the goal to
succeed rather than to help one another out of sympathy.
Different Forms of Society:
To help understand how modern society developed, sociologists find it useful to distinguish societies
according to their type of economy and technology. This amounts to 6 major classifications.
Tribal Society - the term “tribe” denotes a group of peoples living in a primitive setting under a
leader or chief. The term ‘tribal society’ associates it to other meaning such as “primitive society”
or “preliterate society.” The word ‘tribe’ has become an important technical term which pertains to a
political unit in a certain territory.
Tribal societies are small in scale; bound to their spatial and temporal range of relations in terms of
society, law, and politics; and possess a moral code, cult, and wide range of belief system. The
language systems of tribes are unwritten which provides a narrow extent of communication. They are
also nomadic, having only a small amount of people within the community.
Feudal Society - Feudalism refers to the economic, political, and social system that prevailed in
Europe from about the ninth to the fifteenth century. Due to the lack of effective centralized
government during this period, kings and lords granted land and provided protection to lesser nobles
known as vassals. Peasants known as serfs were bound to the land and were subject to the will of
their lords. Peasants were a social class that was not realized on Europe over the whole period.The
medieval world was known for its traditional land economy and military service. These led to a feudal
social-class system where commerce was based on capital.
Industrial Society –Industrial societies feature factories and machines. Industrialization
brought about technological advances that improved people’s health and expanded their life spans.
As noted earlier, there is also a greater emphasis on individualism, and people in these societies
typically enjoy greater political freedom than those in older societies.
Post-Industrial Society – Also known as the “virtual society”, this is characterized by the
establishment of communities based on knowledge, information, and service. This society has a
higher educational attainment and focuses on the rise of communication. The “Internet” is a prime
example of this society’s advancements as it significantly improves the transfer of information to each
individual using it.
Daniel Bell, an American sociologist, first coined the term ‘post-industrial’ in 1973 in his book “The
Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting,” which describes several
features of this kind of society. Post-industrial societies are characterized by:
- A shift from the production of goods to the production of services.
- The replacement of manual laborers with technical and professional workers (shown in
computer engineers, doctors, and bankers)
- The replacement of practical knowledge with theoretical knowledge.
- Focus on the theoretical and ethical implications of new technologies, which help society
avoid the disadvantages of introducing new technologies
- The development of recent scientific disciplines that involve new forms of information
technology, cybernetics, or artificial intelligence.
- An emphasis on the university and polytechnic institutes which produce graduates who
innovate and lead the new technologies.
- The changing values and norms which reflect the influences on the society.
DIGITAL SOCIETY AND THE INFORMATION AGE:
Digital technologies have wildly affected our interactions and activity in the 21st century. They have
significantly changed our way of learning, working and socializing. In this modern world we rely with
the use of modern technology which has led to considering the possible outcome for the society,
concerning how we would take part in interaction, and how we can use these digital tools and
communication channels.
These informative societies have paved many opportunities reaching bigger audiences like never
before. With a wider scale of the world’s demography, primarily Westerners, have access to sources
and technologies which enables them to connect with enough activities whether economic, social,
political, or educational. We can manipulate the process of learning or businesses without a large
sum of money used as a capital and we can share our ideas and perspectives to the international
audiences as we connect beyond.
DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP:
A digital citizen is a person who is knowledgeable and responsible enough to effectively use different
social platforms in the internet. They often engage in useful topics and issues that will help build a
better society, politics and government.
A citizen is defined as an individual character viewed as a member of a society while citizenship
considers an individual’s behavior in terms of rights, obligations and functions of said citizen. Being a
citizen of a state requires tons of obligations and duties such as work, taxation and obedience of
laws. On the other hand, citizens also have their privileges. It includes civil rights such as freedom of
speech and expression, to stand for what they believe in, and the liberty of a private life.
The Disembodied Subject (Interactions on the Virtual Society):
The virtual society and the technological devices today are starting to reshape the human person and
human interactions and relationships. More and more interactions are done in the virtual world than in
the actual world.
However, people seem to start manipulating personalities as they exhibit different behaviors online.
People fall in love in virtual worlds. Someone breaks up with a partner through a text message.
Human relations seem to start losing an important element in living–commitment. Virtual worlds and
disembodied relations lack commitment.
Virtual realities remove risks; and because we do not want to risk, we patronize the virtual world.
Commitment is hard, and to commit is to risk. In the virtual world, one’s obscurity completely removes
risks. When we are confronted with real social problems like war and famine, discrimination
harassment and corruption; we let the world know that we condemn these evils and express
participation in the abolition of these problems but we never physically engage in the abolition itself.
This renders the people in the modern technological society ultimately unable to make any real
commitments.
