Names: Jundis, Richmon Rey & Lorezo, Kilven September 28, 2023

Professor: Dr. Max Felicilda

Social Media and Technologies: Buber’s Interfaith Dialogue

Today, we live in a world where plurality and individuality prevail making subjectivity
more obvious causes different perspectives and division, especially among different religious
denominations in Christianity and with the other religions. Martin Buber's Philosophy of Man
emphasizes the importance of interaction and connection with one another. He also emphasized
mutual understanding that goes beyond mere social interaction because it delves into shared
experiences and emotions that bind people together. Today, the growing influence and power of
technology and social media that create a global village where everyone can easily access
different beliefs and cultures. It is very clear that Buber's concept of Interfaith Dialogue is still
feasible today despite the differences in beliefs and culture, especially in religion because all
experiences share one common theme.

Social media and other technologies are not a barrier to interfaith dialogue. In the first
place, it is undeniable that the rapid development and progress in technological tools are
inevitable. Although there are a lot of cases in which social media platforms and the like become
a tool to oppress and discriminate against other cultures by making wrong assumptions about
them through what we gather from social media posts, these are just adverse effects of social
media and technologies if they are not utilized properly.

Social media and technologies that we use daily are now considered as an extension of
ourselves. The identity we share through these platforms is actually the rehashed "I"s that we
want to extend to other people. If we look at it from another point of view this is somehow
beneficial because what we promote now are our positive and helpful critiques with regards to
social issues that we are talking about over these platforms. What makes the identity a negative
impersonification of ourselves is when we try to create a false identity (such as trolls), to add fire
to many heated debates on many social media platforms. Instead of helping resolve the problem,
they are making the problem worse. But, today, we can begin changing that kind of perspective.

Today, the Interfaith Dialogue can be utilized better through these platforms if we start to
be truer about what we are when we interact on these platforms. Now if we can be better users of
the internet. The Interfaith Dialogue can be more feasible compared to before, because we can
now interact with the other "I"s, who live in different parts of the world, that share different
beliefs and perspectives from us. Here social media and other technologies can be a platform of
dialogue and a place where we can create mutual understanding. As we have mentioned despite
the differences in beliefs, culture, and religion, there is a common theme across them.
Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and all other religions want to have a world where
love, peace, and unity prosper. Although we have different forms and ways of expressing them,
our common goals are the same.

In accordance with the idea of Buber, we therefore believe that even though we have
different religious beliefs we can still walk hand-in-hand harmoniously. We are the world, we are
all brothers and sisters, and we are the ones that can make a better place through these modern
means of social communication, so, let us start having an Interfaith Dialogue.