By Qarol Price
When we think of moral integrity we think of an individual’s behavior being consistent with their moral principles.
But what if we consider this on a larger scale — can an entire town be seen as a moral agent, responsible for safeguarding moral standards? Should the community have input to moral life such as the family would?
Most people come by their principles via traditional sources in their community, but these traditional sources of moral development are weakening. Families are under strain, religious participation has declined, character education has gone the way of Latin in public schools and civic associations have withered. So how can we fortify our moral foundation when, more and more, social media owns our attention?
One of the most important tests of integrity for a community is how we respond to the growing problem of excessive screen time. Phones, tablets and computers are a major part of daily life for people of all ages. While these tools bring convenience and connection, screen time addiction has begun to damage the moral fabric of our shared community. Addressing this problem is not just a personal choice, it’s a collective responsibility.
Remember how we used to say that the television had become the new babysitter? That is, we let the TV play a role that rightly belonged to parents, who had become too busy to handle it themselves.
Now the situation is even more dangerous: our kids have found a much bigger, much wider community to belong to. Only this one, the cyber community, the screen peer group, is a community of electronic phantoms floating in an impersonal online void.
This means our youth (and ourselves!) are more “connected” yet, at the same time, more isolated, more alienated and less socialized! So again, what can we do about it?
An important step might be to increase our own face-to-face community connections. We could begin to participate in small discussion groups dealing with these issues. Selma’s Public Discourse through Film is just such an example. Examining what our values need to be gives communities a chance to reclaim agency over who they are becoming and to strengthen our own ties with neighbors. We declare that integrity, presence and responsibility still matter — and that we are committed to shaping a moral landscape worthy of the place we call home.
In short, these times demand moral clarity because social bonds are no longer self-sustaining. If communities do not intentionally examine and uphold their moral integrity, it will be shaped for them by the insidious “influencers” of the internet.
