What is the religious situation in Spain and what are the tasks for the new evangelization?In social networks, evangelizing normalityWe laughed among friends remembering the "snake"The game that came with the Nokia mobiles of our adolescence and consisted of steering a hungry little snake to prevent it from running into walls or its tail. Since then, things have changed a lot, to the point that now it is the cell phones that play with us.
Virtuously managed, the cell phone is a marvel. But when we neglect it, it becomes a difficult to tame reptile that profits from our time. Underneath the social networks software designed to make us dependent on their services, which wait for us to let our guard down to poison us: they blur our notion of time, anesthetize our will, interrupt the day and hurt the night.
And the children, what vital anguish do they suffer from these seductive mobiles, which demand hours and hours of banal bickering?
A few weeks ago I saw a young mother walking with her 11 or 12 year old daughter in a shopping mall. Suddenly, the little girl spotted the technology store, scrunched up her face and shouted, "Mommy!I need a cell phone, how long do I have to keep repeating it to you! In my class all have one!"
"Everyone" has one, the little girl repeated, and although the polls prove her right, her argument is disguised as blackmail. And although the surveys prove her right, her argument is disguised as blackmail: "If you don't give it to me, you'll condemn me to social shipwreck," she would say. How did it come to this? Who decided that the children need a cell phone, parents or the technology market?
While parents and teachers are busy educating children in the rational governance of their desires, cell phones conspire with the opposite purpose. And when parents regret having given this gift too early, they find to their horror that they can no longer take it away, or that time constraints are difficult to enforce, because their children have integrated the cell phone into their lives as an extension of their own bodies.
At what age to give a cell phone as a gift? The solution depends on the prudence of each family and their ability to manage social pressure. But the pressure is immense, we cannot leave them alone against a multinational adversary. We must think, coordinate strategies, devise solutions and support each other. If we defend children with courage, we can put them to bed at night with the awareness that we are heeding the warning of Jesus Christ: "The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, if your eye is simple, your whole body will be enlightened. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be in darkness" (Mt 6:22-23).
And what happened to the young mother? She squatted down to her daughter's height, stroked her hair, gradually calming her trembling and hugged her. "I understand you, I'm going to talk it over with daddy, meanwhile, I'll lend you mine when you need it...", she whispered, hesitantly and perhaps longing for the innocence of the Nokia "bricks" and the snake.
