According to Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire and presented it as a gift to man and for this he was punished by the gods. In a drama Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus in fifth century BC explored the theme whether techne (technique), was stronger than nature. The natural answer then was in the negative. Today the ‘digital citizens’ are unsure if there is a new form of servitude that forces them to constantly upgrade or a form of addiction that leaves them helpless, media angst.

The Vatican Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications, Aetatis Novae (1991, n.4) says, “Indeed, the power of media extends to defining not only what people will think but even what they will think about. Reality, for many, is what the media recognize as real; what media do not acknowledge seems of little importance.” McLuhan affirmed that the crucial factors in changing culture and human behaviour are not just ideas, philosophies, and religions, but more fundamentally the technological innovations
of the era, especially when they touch on communication. How true this observation is at present in Africa especially among the young who pride in calling themselves the ‘.com generation.’ According to Pierre Babin in the electronic culture, the message is not in words but in the effect produced by the whole complex known as the medium. These media are not just technologies transferring content, but they form a world, an enveloping environment.

The shift from the message to the medium, from meaning to the effect, from linear, logical, doctrinal to the audiovisual, from words to modulations, from matter to form, from information to infotainment, from real to virtual is a new way of living.

Salesians entering into the ‘turf’ of the young must grapple with the reality that the present ‘aeropago’ to use the felicitous phrase of the Redemptoris Missio has extra dimensions, perspectives and framework. In documents of GC 26, art.102 challenges the Salesian to shift to competency in the field of social communication through ‘formation, time and sensitivity.’ It is our ardent hope that this manual, Salesians of Don Bosco for Cyber Age in Africa, will be a trail blazer in awareness and a trend setter in sensitivity for formation to social communication in our African continent.

Fr KD Tom Kunnel sdb
Delegate for Social Communication Africa-Madagascar Region
2008