RELATIONSHIPS IN THE MODERN WORLD OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: A CRITIQUE BASED ON

BUBERIAN PHILOSOPHY
-Jay Michael L. Cordero
Martin Buber in his famous Book entitled I-Thou discuss the two kinds of relationship man has
towards his fellow human beings, the things around him and with God. Bubers philosophy is
centered on relationship between the self and others which he radically contrasted with the
relationship of the self with objects. Buber speaks of relationships as having two kinds, the I-
Thou and I-It relationship. In understanding the difference of this two kind of relationships the
difference lies in how man would treat his fellow human beings and the things around him. I-
Thou is relationship of man with his fellow human beings. Man is a person, a subject who has
rights, dignity and honor. Man is therefore a Thou and not an It.
According to Buber the central features of our ethical, social, and religious life become
unintelligible if we understand human relations and relations to God in terms of our relations
to objects. There is a need to distinguish the way we relate to our fellow human beings and to
the things around us. It is unintelligible if we treat everything in similar kind of relationship. If
we understand our relationship with our fellow human beings the same as our relationship with
in animate objects then we cease to give them value and we consider them too as part of the
world of objects. Objects are things that we manipulate and control and thus we cannot apply
such kind of relationship with our fellow human beings. For Buber we respond to the
presence and individuality of others in forming joint human projects rather than seeing
others as objects to manipulate. Buber realized that there is a basic difference between
relating to a thing or to an object that I observe, and to a person or a Thou that address me and
to whose address I respond. There is a difference between the way people usually relate to
inanimate things on the one hand and to living persons on the other. As a person man is not a
what but a who.
For Buber, there are two primary relationships between oneself and another. One of the
fundamental way of relating to others is in the common mode of I-It, in which people and
things are experienced as objects, or, in Kantian terms, as means to an end.
A person as well as an inanimate thing can be viewed as a thing, or, in Bubers terminology
an It. It can be both non-human objects and other persons, covering everything with which
the I comes into contact and uses for its own utility. This is a relation between a user and an
object of use or between an observer and an object of observation. In the I-It level of
relatedness man is treated not as a subject but as an object or a thing. I- It is a relation of
subject-to-object. This is also called a relationship of monologue wherein the other party is
considered in the world of things. This is a one-sided relation, within which the I concentrates
upon its own purposes and concerns and keeps the It at a distance, where it is measured and
studied. In this relatedness, personal commitment does not exist. In many relationships
people consider each other as mere objects.
Buber further describes the level of I-It relationship to refer to the relation between subjects
and objects; for example, between a human being and a pencil. The human being is active,
whereas the pencil is passive. This distinction is often referred to in more philosophical
language as a subjectobject relation, in which an active subject (in this case, the human
being) relates to an inactive object (in this case, the pencil).
According to Buber, the subject acts as an I, and the object as an It. The relation between the
human being and pencil could thus be described as an IIt relation. Thou may be either human
or not human. I-Thou is a relation of subject-to-subject. This is also called a relationship of
dialogue wherein unity of two beings takes place characterized by mutuality and reciprocity. A
transition from I-It to I-Thou is possible from an impersonal relationship to a personal one.
The I-Thou relationship is not an impersonal one but a personal one inasmuch as the I
recognizes the other as a person. Thou is not an object to be manipulated. In this case, the I
recognizes the others needs and rights as a person.
The other is not considered by the I as an object to be used but as a person who has his
own uniqueness and needs. Hence, the I respects the Thou because the I treats the Thou
not as means to an end but as having value in himself. The I who is always conscious of himself
as a who, a subject, and a self relates to another I (Thou) who is also conscious of himself as a
who, subject and a self. The relationship becomes personal wherein the other is recognized as
a person during the course of the encounter. The other is seen as not as a means but an end.
The relationship becomes mutual.
The relationship of I-Thou is seen by Buber as being in danger with the advent of modern
technology. Modern technology affected our relationships with each other. In many occasions
the new technology is not used to develop relationship but rather it used to manipulate the
other. In the Eclipse of God, Buber warns, In our age the I-It relation, gigantically swollen, has
usurped, practically uncontested, the mastery and the rule. The I of this relation, an It
that possess all, makes all, succeeds with all, this I that is unable to meet a being
essentially, is the lord of the hour. The selfhood that has become omnipotent, with all the It
around it, can naturally acknowledge neither God nor any genuine absolute which manifests
itself to men as of non-human origin. It steps in between and shuts off from us the light of
heaven.
1

According to Buber, the present twentieth century, now we are even in the 21
st
century
already, threatens to destroy completely the world of the I-Thou. Increasingly the It world is

1
Martin Buber, Eclipse of God, 129; cf. Bettis.
smothering and even obliterating completely the I-Thou relationships. According to Buber
with the spectacular advances of science and the application of the principles of modern
technology on an almost universal scale, there is growing an alarming tendency to consider
man less and less a human being or a genuine Thou. Buber was concerned of the growth of
the It-world over time, most especially with the rise of modern science and technology.
Internet and social media can be ways to establish relationship but most people would use it to
control others, destroy their dignity and commit crimes. Take for example the cases of cyber
bullying where many young teenagers had committed suicide because of the abuse they
received. Cyber pornography treats man as an object to manipulate and as a being to exploit for
pleasure. Human dignity is not respected by people who conceal themselves by hiding using
this technology. They use technology to treat persons not as thou but as an It, an object of
manipulation, control and exploitation. As Herbert Marcuse writes, the repressive conditions
of modern industrial society, which he held destroyed freedom of the individual and reduced
people to the status of tools. This actions stifles man, degrades him and oppresses him. He is
no longer a person but a commodity to be used and exploited. Man is seen not according to
his dignity and rights but according to his function, this depersonalizes and dehumanizes him.
Buber argued that such a disregard for the dignity of man is rooted in rejection of the only valid
mode of interpersonal relationship, namely, the I-Thou relationship. When man ceases to
regard his fellow man as a genuine Thou, when he calculatively view him in a highly
impersonal manner as an It, an object to be used and manipulated, then we are faced with a
technomania or technolatry. Man has become a commodity, which is to be exploited by
modern technology, industry and politics. Even in the name of the so called progress man has
been sacrificed as an It, blindly serving the twentieth century modern world. Buber speaks of
an increasing sense of alienation which follows the development of the It- world. St Francis
Assisi detected it in the rise of Scholasticism; Buber and Marcel find it especially rampant in
the modern development of science and technology and share Assisi's concern.
Children and teenagers who have the pleasure of owning gadgets and modern technology
apparatus spend most of their time using them than having a dialogue with their parents and
friends. How much time have you spent playing computer games and being in the internet?
How much time do you spent with your brothers, sisters and family members talking and
establishing relationship with them? Teens and children have establish an I-Thou relationship
with their gadgets whom they treated as something that has the most value. Relationships are
sacrificed for the sake of playing computer and games and spending time in the internet.
Relationship of people with each other is put in danger when they dont know which one
should be treated as an It and which one must be treated as a Thou.
Marcel and Buber were especially concerned with the frightening erosion of human values,
human personality and human relationship which they attribute to the disproportionate
influence of twentieth century technology. Values and relationships are affected by
technology, take for instance the effect of television. Many families dont eat together anymore
because they would prefer to spend time watching telenovela rather than join the rest of the
family for dinner where they can spend time together and have conversation over family
matters. Most of us, or many of you when you go home would spend the whole day inside your
room and in front of the computer playing computer games and internet rather than spend
time with your family.
Consumerism which attracts people to buy what is new in the market forces people to work
more beyond the usual hours in order to earn more. The typical example is that many
relationships in families are destroyed if not weakened due to lack of time for dialogue and
venue to establish relationships because the parents are busy working from day to night and no
more time for family bonding. The demands of consumerism demands man to work more and
man has been continually exploited for the sake of so called progress. For the sake of the so
called progress human relationship is being affected, more time for work and no more time
for relationship.
In the seminary, you are very much lucky to spend time with each other establishing friendship
through dialogue and community activities unhindered by the disturbance of modern
technology. If gadgets would be allowed in the seminary it will be detrimental both to your
studies and community life. When people are gathered together who barely know each other,
notice that what they would usually do is take out their cellphones from their pocket and text
or play games. They fail to initiate a dialogue with people around them. The worst effect of
technological domination is when people find themselves and assert too much importance on
the technology itself. According to Marcuse some people recognize themselves in their
commodities; they even find their soul in their automobiles, hi-fi set, split level home, kitchen
equipment. The mechanism which ties the person to his society has changed and social control
is anchored in the new needs which it has produced. Marcuse is also aware that the
relationships among men are increasingly mediated by the machine process. Marcuse gives an
example, The average man hardly cares for any living being with the intensity and
persistence he shows for his automobile. The machine that is adored is no longer dead matter
but becomes something like a human being.
Marcuse clearly states, that man gives too much importance on technology that he finds
himself in it. We give too much value by spending too much time for technology rather than
spending time with our fellow human beings. The object which is used as an instrument for
utility is not anymore an It but has become a Thou. Martin Buber projected that in the modern
age, where technology and modernization rapidly increases and develops it would result to
the so called depersonalization, dehumanization and thingification of man.
The dignity of the human being has been totally disregarded, modern technology does not feel
that it has any more responsibility to man than it has for a tool or machine. After mans
dignity and initiative have been despoiled, after he has been sapped of all his strength and
energy, man is tossed up the scrap heap of human discards. The once proud and dignified
creative human being is now cast aside-worn out, disconsolate and broken. Once more man
has been victimized by modern progress.
Buber adamantly maintains that when man is treated by technology in a highly impersonal
and undignified manner by modern technology. He cannot but treat his fellow man in the
same shameful way. The more he is treated as a thing by modern civilization, the more he
considers his fellow man as a thing to be used and exploited at will. This is the main point
that I want to drive that modern technology leads man to depersonalization, dehumanization
and reduces man to an It. Consequently man too treats his fellow man not as a Thou but as
an It. We can see how modern technology and civilization affects our relationship with each
other and the way we would deal with our fellow human beings. Buber clearly pointed out the
ultimate degradation of human beings with their fellow human beings in the 1940s. According
to Buber, the bestial, demonical, slaughter of millions of innocent people by the Nazis at
Buchenwald, Dachau and Auschwitz, was possible only because long before, man had already
convinced themselves that the world of I-It is the only legitimate one. Man, for these
individuals was made only for use. He was only a thing, an instrument to serve the physically
stronger overlord.
Human relationships in the advanced modern industrial society or in the modern world of
technology is being dehumanized and depersonalized. This depersonalization of man leads also
to the depersonalization of human relationships. Human relationships is viewed as a
relationship of utility, where we relate and use the other as a means. As a conclusion human
relationships had been greatly affected due to the depersonalization and dehumanization of
man caused by modern technology.