Page 368 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
The Person in the Age of the Internet
Perhaps nowhere is this more visible than in the internet.
Knowledge acquired through the internet is like taking
vitamins without the fruit, or bran without the wheat. One
receives it alone at home, whereas in the past knowledge was
received collectively in school or university. Learning was
then an event of communion, much like prayer in the Church
compared with prayer at home. At school and university, to-
gether with knowledge, there were friendships, loves, and
human relationships—encounters that might seem distrac-
tions, yet were in fact part of the very nourishment of learn-
ing. Just as vitamins need the whole fruit, and prayer reaches
its fullness in the gathered Church, so knowledge too be-
comes truly nourishing only within a living human commu-
nity.
The internet presents a striking example of the spirit of our
age. Very soon, those not connected to it will be mute, unable
to transmit their message anywhere. Yet the internet is also the
summit of rationalism and individualism. It intensifies the
alienation of the person, estranges human beings from nature
and from their own bodies, and radically alters human rela-
tionships. When I communicate through the internet, my
body does not communicate—only my mind does. But once
the body is absent, human relationship itself is wounded. The
person is reduced to information, and communion is replaced
by transmission.
The common argument in favor of the internet is that it
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