By Nigel Akuani
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 4 February 2020 -- The Don Bosco Technological Institute (DBTI) had a four-day orientation program for over 300 of its students to open the academic year. Held from the 3rd to 6th of February at DBTI’s main hall, the orientation program had sessions from a peak into campus life, academic policies, technological visits, code of conduct of the school, DBTI traditions, Talent show, campus tours and several other sessions with important information.
On Tuesday, 4 February, a session on the responsible and safe use of media was facilitated by Fr. Ambrose Pereira sdb. It focused on social media and its purpose, humanity’s position in today’s world of technology, a biblical reference comparing technology in the past and its exponential growth today, and its connection with present day digital natives. Fr Ambrose explained of how people were slowly losing themselves in the world of social media through the use of smartphones and encouraged the students not to allow these products to dominate their lives.
Dwelling on Artificial Intelligence, he described phones as having “no soul” and reminded the students that artificial intelligence is programming our lives, manipulating our values and attitudes and destroying our culture and heritage. He invited the students to carefully evaluate the use of their phones and reminded them that they were human beings with an intellect, a will and a soul.
Comments from the students:
- We spend productive time on our smart phones doing unproductive things. It is a waste of time and money.
- We realize that we spend time with people we have not met rather than with the people we meet face to face.
- I have been addicted to Social Media and I now need to be responsible in using my digital device.
- We need to reduce our cyber footprint so that our academic excellence will soar.
