The Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith Thero, says that the family institution and human relationships have broken down due to the addiction to mobile phones and new technology in today’s society.
The Thero points out that with the introduction of the free market economy to this country, consumerism has grown to the extreme in society, and through it, making money by creating artificial desires in people has become the main factor driving society today.
The Thero said this while participating in a religious ceremony held in the Seeduwa area.
The free market economy has created unlimited desires and needs in people that did not exist before, and the market is controlled not based on the real needs of people, but with the aim of making money through artificially created desires, the Thero further points out.
The Cardinal further commented:
“After the introduction of this free market economy to this country, the people of the country have developed desires that they did not have, this is called consumerism, the desire to accumulate as much as possible. Now, if a person was talking alone on the street, they would be caught and handed over to the police. Now, people walk around shouting and shouting.
One aspect of consumerism is that some people come to me and ask me if I have bought the latest. I do not understand what this latest means. When we have a phone, we use it to make calls and send messages, but now the phone is our entire life.
We are tired of waiting for the phone, we do not sleep all night, we watch programs until dawn. Mothers, fathers and children have no family life, all values have disappeared. Market economy, that is, the market economy, which creates desires that are not inside the body and makes money from them, is what drives society today. When we learn “We think we’re informing the world. When society reaches higher levels, it becomes arrogant.”