In 1967, St. Paul VI began the custom of dedicating a message each year to reflect on communication. His successors have continued this initiative, confirming the Italian pontiff's intuition about the relevance of the media for the life of the Church and the transmission of the faith.
In these more than 50 years, the various Popes have addressed the most varied topics, but if we review the most recent ones, it is easy to detect a logical attention to digital communication. Social networks, truth in the digital era, pastoral care and virtuality, or dialogue and new technologies are some of the issues that the popes have addressed.
This year's message (the 53rd) is inspired by an expression from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, to whom the Apostle reminds that "we are members of each other" (Eph 4:25). Pope Francis uses this Pauline consideration to meditate on the capacity of social networks to strengthen or weaken human communities, depending on how they are used. The text is a valuable contribution to a broader movement of social reflection-which logically goes beyond the limits of the Church-on the benefits and harms that the digitalization of relationships is introducing into our lives. Today we spend 300 % more minutes in front of a screen every day than in 1995, a figure that implies numerous changes not only in time management, but also in other fundamental spheres, such as the acquisition of knowledge, social relations or the formation of the personality. As the Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, Msgr. Lucio Ruiz, pointed out, "looking into each other's eyes has been replaced by the contemplation of a touch screen, and the silence of the other person is no longer necessary to express oneself without being interrupted"..
The internet dream
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the first Web page, its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, lamented the drift that the Internet is taking. The dream of a connected society, where collaboration would replace competition, today faces numerous obstacles caused by those who promote particular interests. Privacy problems, the absence of neutrality, fake news, the imperialism of large technology companies and the fragmentation of Internet regulation in different geographical areas of power (mainly the United States, Europe, China and Russia) are some of the main threats. "The dream of the Internet that people were so excited about doesn't look like it will now bring great good to mankind."Berners-Lee said at CERN in Geneva last March.
To this complex horizon of digital business -dramatic, in that it is beyond the control of users and, at the same time, it outlines an uncertain future for a tool that has become essential for the most ordinary relationships and tasks- is added the personal experience of how the Internet has progressively invaded even the smallest space in our lives. Nicholas Carr, an American essayist critical of the network, has stated that "technology is the expression of the will of man".Do we need to control time? Let's make clocks. Let's make clocks. Do we want to fly? Let's build airplanes. Do we want to talk to those who are far away? Let's invent the telephone. Do we want to get rid of the limits of physical reality (distance, time, space)? Voilà internet.
The Internet exists because we have deeply wanted it. Until now, our inexhaustible desires ran up against the limits of space, time or our nature, but suddenly virtuality is offering us an instant solution. That's why we spend so many hours on social networks, succumb to the convenience of apps or get hooked on the constant conversation that instant messaging allows. Digital technologies envelop us so strongly because they promise to satisfy the deepest needs that drive the will: the affection of friends, social acceptance, intellectual curiosity, entertainment, and so on. The inexhaustible information contained in the network seems to be at the height of our desires and infinite dreams (for woe to the man who stops desiring!).
Nostalgia for others
The message of Pope Francis addresses one of man's main needs to which the network offers an immeasurable response: to enter into relationship with others. The Pauline expression "we are members of each other" (Eph 4:25) reminds us that man needs others in order to know the truth about himself. In the first lines of the message, he points out the most terrible threat from which every person flees: loneliness. From a positive perspective, the Holy Father invites us to "to reflect on the foundation and importance of our being-in-relationship; and to rediscover, in the vastness of the challenges of the current communicative context, the desire of man who does not want to remain in his own solitude".. That is, we are networked because our nature, our way of being men, leads us to it, because we enjoy interacting with others and because we find in technology a valuable tool to deploy our instinct to live in society.
– Supernatural nostalgia for others appears, therefore, as one of the most powerful forces. Francis points out that the origin of the need to live in relationship is based on the fact of having been created "in the image and likeness of God"of a God who is not solitude, but Trinitarian communion. Thus, the Pope goes on to say, the truth of each person is revealed only in communion. It is only through relationship with others that the individual is made anotherbecomes fully someone. This is how St. Paul puts it: "Wherefore lay aside lying, and speak every man truly to his neighbor, for we are members one of another." (Eph 4:25). If we do not give ourselves to others by opening ourselves to relationship, sums up the message, we lose the only way to find ourselves, to understand who we are and what we are called to.
Networks promise community, but people need communion. Although the message makes a positive reading of the capacity of social networks, it also warns of their destructive power, and explicitly mentions some fraudulent mischiefs, such as the "manipulative use of personal data for political and economic advantage".the "disinformation and to the conscious and planned distortion of facts and interpersonal relations".the "narcissism" e "unbridled individualism"or the virtual identity constructed as "contrast against the other, against the one who does not belong to the group".. The network can become a community in which to connect with others, yes, but also a spider's web in which to get trapped.
One of the last paragraphs of the message contains the keys to reconcile the nostalgia for entering into a relationship with others with a prudent use of the networks: "If the network is used as an extension or as an expectation of that encounter [with others], then it doesn't betray itself and is still a resource for communion. If a family uses the network to be more connected and then meets at the table and looks each other in the eye, then it is a resource. If a church community coordinates its activities through the network and then celebrates the Eucharist together, then it is a resource. If the network provides me with the occasion to get closer to stories and experiences of beauty or suffering physically distant from me, to pray together and seek the good together in the rediscovery of what unites us, then it is a resource.".
Digital tools, which we are gradually learning to master, are putting our humanity to the test. We are beginning to realize that technology is infinite, but we are not; and that its supply is virtual, but we are material beings. Just as with the forces of nature - such as fire or water - we need to channel the power of technology -establishing limits and regulating its power-.
"Master of physicality"
Recently, a study on teen friendship revealed a curious fact: in 2012, the majority of young people preferred to communicate with friends in person (49 %), ahead of those who chose to do so via text messages (33 %); six years later, in 2018, preferences have changed: the privileged channel for talking to friends is text messages (35 %), while face-to-face conversations are only chosen by 32 % of teenagers.
Can we really being-with-others increasingly reducing the physical encounter? Logic says no, because we are soul and body, and happiness does not admit half-happiness - a "virtual" or purely "spiritual" happiness is not enough for us - but we aspire to fullness.
The technological future is undoubtedly in the hands of large corporations and on them depends the development of countless exciting future promises (for example, artificial intelligence or virtual reality). Is technology a train that the Church has missed? No: in addition to continuing to inspire the work of innovators with the message of the Gospel, the Church, as an expert in humanity, is undoubtedly called upon to become "expert in physicality". It will have to remind the world once again of the importance of the body and of the physical senses deeply connected to the soul; it will have to invite to live charity in the physical encounter, creating spaces and occasions for personal contact, inviting to exercise the charity of "being there" - how much good can a phone call do instead of a comfortable WhatsappIt will need to emphasize even more the central role of the sacraments and community celebrations, etcetera.
The Church does not face the challenge of humanizing digital technologies alone, but is accompanied by other social forces. I am referring, fundamentally, to the family and to educational centers. These are the right places in which to learn the art of being human in a digital world: where to use technology to communicate with others and learn to disconnect in order to listen; where to keep quiet about an online comment and be able to discuss without hurting each other offline; where to navigate in order to get to know the world and, at the same time, to dialogue in order to understand one's neighbor.
Extension y wait: These two words in the message provide the key to the beneficial use of social networks, because they extend the relationship with others or prepare us for it, but they do not replace the other person. The challenge consists, perhaps, in offering those around us and ourselves sufficient motives for personal encounters, to receive from others that happiness that only another person can give us. n
