Imperative: 'The More the Better' as a Danger for Proper Development of Information Society

Abstract

Proper social development takes into account the welfare of an individual and of a community, and first of all it respects their rights and freedom in every interpersonal interaction and between culture and nature. I focus on the present stage of development of information society (information is one of the most important values in the society) in which pro-technological attitude to life and reality dominates, as well as economization and commercialization of the humanities. I express the opinion that organizing the whole social life according to the imperative: “the more the better” endangers everything that all the fields of science have achieved so far. It also deprives the new technologies of the proper sense of their existence and does not propose a positive vision of the future for information society. The situation is quite the opposite. I give examples which illustrate the fact that an individual becomes more and more disintegrated and dependent creature and, which is against common slogans, society becomes less and less creative and innovative. People often lose both the sense of reality and authenticity and the ability to evaluate and shape good value of their own life and good quality of interpersonal relations. The idea of universitas is reduced to the relation between producers and consumers/ prosumers. That is why I support introducing into life the conception of integrated man, conception based on self-restraint and so called “information hygiene”.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n3s1p13