THE HUMAN PERSON IN SOCIETY

1. Recognize how individuals from societies and how individuals are transformed by
societies.
2. Compare different forms of societies and individualities (e.g. Agrarian, Industrial and
virtual)
3. Explain how human relations are transformed by social systems
4. Evaluate the transformation of human relationships by social systems and how
societies transform individual human beings.
ACTIVITY
Explain the following statements and give concrete examples. Write your inputs in a sheet
of yellow paper..
1. The relationship of individuals and societies
2. Human relations are transformed by social systems
 Human
Person and
Society
Picture No. 1:
1. What are the distinct features of
this society?

2. Do you think what are their

priorities during this time?

3. By seeing the picture, what do

you think are the norms they
have?

4. What caused the transformation

of this society?
Picture No. 2:
1. What are the distinct
features of this society?

2. Do you think what are their

priorities during this time?

3. By seeing the picture, what

do you think are the norms
they have?

4. What caused the

transformation of this
society?
Picture No. 3:
1. What are the distinct features of
this society?

2. Do you think what are their

priorities during this time?

3. By seeing the picture, what do

you think are the norms they have?

4. What caused the transformation

of this society?
 A.Pre-Industrial Societies

a. Tribal Society - the term “tribe” denotes a group of

peoples living in a primitive setting under a leader or
chief. The term ‘tribal society’ associates it to other
meaning such as “primitivesociety” or
“preliteratesociety.” Theword ‘tribe’ has become an
important technical term which pertains to a political
unit in a certain territory. The term’s use is rooted from
Latin which is associated to the political divisions or
orders of the Roman empire.
 b. Feudal Society - Feudalism refers to the
economic, political, and social system that
prevailed in Europe from about the ninth to the
fifteenth century. Due to the lack of effective
centralized government during this period,
kings and lords granted land and provided
protection to lesser nobles known as vassals. In
return, these vassals swore oaths of loyalty and
military service their lords.
B. Industrial society is the one which uses
advance technology to drive a masssive
production industry that will support a large
population. For example, the United States is an
industrial society because a huge portion of its
economy is tied to jobs that involve machine
work, like factory farming or auto-assembly
plants, that has a combination of machine and
human employees to produce goods.
C. Post Industrial Society - is manufacturing-
based to a marked by a service-based progress
from a economy. Post industrialization is most
evident in countries and regions that were among
the first to experience the Industrial Revolution,
such as the United States, western Europe, and
Japan. Daniel Bell, an American sociologist, first
coined the term ‘post-industrial’ in 1973 in his
book “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A
Venture in Social Forecasting,” which describes
several features of this kind of society. Post-
industrial societies are characterized by:
a. a shift from the production of goods to the production of
services;
b. the replacement of manual laborers with technical and
professional workers (computer engineers, doctors, and bankers)
as the direct production of goods is moved elsewhere;
c. the replacement of practical knowledge with theoretical
knowledge;
d. focusing to the theoretical and ethical implications of new
technologies, which helps society avoid some of the negative
features of introducing new technologies, concerning
environment and energy
e. the development of recent scientific disciplines—that involve new
formsof information technology, cybernetics, or artificial
intelligence—to evaluate the theoretical and ethical implications of
new technologies;

f. an emphasis on the university and polytechnic institutes which

produce graduates who innovate and lead the new technologies
contributing to a postindustrial society; and

g. the changing values and norms which reflects the influences on the
society. In an instance, outsourcing of manufactured goods changes
how members of a society see and treat foreigners and immigrants.
DIGITAL SOCIETY AND THE INFORMATION AGE

Digital technologies have wildly affected our

interactions and activity in the 21st century. They
have significantly changed our way of learning,
working and socializing. In this modern world we
rely with the use of modern technology which has
led to considering the possible outcome for the
society, concerning how we would take part in
interaction, and how we can use these digital tools
and communication channels.
 Having our heads of digital society in our minds,
we first have to think of the information society;
which are correlated with the progress and
development of digital information and
communication technologies to the internet at
least. Information society plays a vital role with
regards to the circulation and control of made-up
ideas which affects political, economic, social and
cultural aspects. So, what does this mean for the
everyday citizen?
 What do we mean by digital citizenship?
Now, one of the main terms in the modern world is
the ‘digital citizen’. What does this actually
mean? A digital citizen is a person who is
knowledgeable and responsible enough to
effectively use different social platforms in the
internet. They often engage in useful topics and
issues that will help build a better society, politics
and government. If we will dig deeper, digital
citizenship might look simple. We might think that
it is just about using internet safely
If we look a little closer at the field of
‘citizenship studies’ this will lead us to a better
understanding of what digital society really
means. A citizen is defined as an individual
character who is viewed as a member of a
society while citizenship considers an
individual’s behavior in terms of rights,
obligations and functions of said citizen. Being
a citizen of a state requires tons of obligations
and duties such as work, taxation and
obedience of laws.
What does this all mean then in the digital age?
We have said that being a digital citizen requires
active participation online, not just access and use. In
their book “Being Digital Citizens” (2015) Isin and
Ruppert suggest that if we constitute ourselves as
digital citizens, we have become subjects of power in
cyberspace. We are enacting ourselves on the internet,
considering and understanding the opportunities
presented by this medium, such as anonymity,
communication, and influence. In short, we can use
digital technologies to engage and participate on many
levels in society and political life.
The virtual society and the technological devices
today are starting to reshape the human person
and human interactions and relationships. More
and more interactions are done in the virtual
world than in the actual world. People are more
thrilled to see their virtual selves than their
actual selves. They are more themselves online
than offline. And this leads one to ask, “Who am
I?” in a more complex manner. People seem to
start manipulating personalities as they exhibit
different behaviors in different worlds
Someone breaks up with a partner through a text
message. Human relations seem to start losing an
important element in living – commitment. Virtual
worlds and disembodied relations lack commitment.
We can always step back and retreat in a virtual
world. We can always create a new self when our
avatars die or when it has become undesirable. We
can always ignore message. Virtual realities remove
risks; and because we do not want to risk, we
patronize the virtual world. Commitment is hard. To
commit is to risk. In the virtual world, one’s
anonymity lessens, if not completely removes risks.
 THE DISEMBODIED SUBJECT
The dissatisfaction and frustration of the human
person with bodily limitations drive the person to
prefer a disembodied human relation. At the outset, it
must be clarified that the term disembodied subject
does not mean that in the technological society,
human persons are no longer living with their bodies.
Consequently, we find many cases where people prefer
communicating using virtual world, even if the person
involved is someone seen on a regular basis. Moreover,
the disembodied interaction among people is
aggravated by modern technological devices.
The different gadgets that are produced today
support disembodied human relations. The scene
which the technological society creates is very
familiar to us: we see a family, or friends, gathered
around a table or in a room, but with very minimal
actual embodied human interaction. Everyone is
glued to their devices – cellphones, tablets, laptops,
or any device and they are all probably interacting
with their virtual societies. One is busy with other
things other than the persons within the room or in
the closest proximity.
 The practice of selfie is another move towards
disembodied human relations. People used to
approach other people to take their photos. But the
regained popularity of selfie gave people the idea
that they do not need the other to take photos. And
the invention of the monopod aggravates the
condition. The monopod allows us to take group
selfies without missing a member of our group. It
has solidified the person to take our photos. Maybe
we will just disturb the person by asking him to take
our photo. But maybe we are more afraid of being
rejected than by the idea of bothering the other.
The virtual society and the technological devices today are
starting to reshape the human person and human
interactions and relationships. More and more interactions
are done in the virtual world than in the actual world.
People are more thrilled to see their virtual selves than their
actual selves. They are more themselves online than offline.
And this leads one ask “Who am I” in a more complex
manner. People seem to start manipulating personalities as
they exhibit different behaviors in different worlds.
People fall in love in virtual worlds. Someone breaks
up with a partner through a text message. Human
relations seem to start losing an important element in
living – commitment. Virtual worlds and disembodied
relations lack commitment. We can always step back
and retreat in a virtual world. We can always create a
new self when our avatars die or when it has become
undesirable. We can always ignore message. Virtual
realities remove risks; and because we do not want to
risk, we patronize the virtual world. Commitment is
hard.
To commit is to risk. In the virtual world,
one’s anonymity lessens, if not completely
removes risks. When we are confronted with
real social problems like war and famine,
discrimination harassment and corruption; we
let the world know that we condemn these
evils and express participation in the abolition
of these problems. How? By a futile click to
like. People in the modern technological society
ultimately make no real commitments.