These days, one is hard-pressed to find people who speak positively about social media. In fact, a quick Google search of the term “social media” brings about doom-and-gloom articles discussing how social media have brought about the ruin of our institutions, turned us into antisocial scrollers and are the root source of depression and anxiety.
The Catholic Church and digital media was one theme that had not been getting much press attention at the Synod of Bishops, but finally emerged during the third week of talks dedicated to accompaniment.
A diet of locusts and wild honey. A wardrobe of a hair shirt. The willingness to publicly challenge social power and influence in order to communicate God’s plan for marriage. A message of a change of heart to all who would listen. Any of these attributes or actions would garner a lot of attention on social media today. The attention might be negative or even hateful, but I can only imagine the person behind these bold eccentricities would go viral for at least a while.
On a recent trip to Sacramento, from my home base in the LA area, I flew Southwest Airlines. In an idle moment, I reached for the magazine in the seatback pocket and commenced to leaf through it. I came across an article by a woman named Sarah Menkedick entitled “Unfiltered: How Motherhood Interrupted My Relationship with Social Media.” The piece was not only wittily and engagingly written, it also spoke to some pretty profound truths about our cultural situation today and the generation that has come of age under the influence of the Internet.
Children may not read the newspaper or watch news on television like their parents or grandparents, but they still want news. They just get it from different sources, according to a report issued March 8.
Low-cost video messaging carried across increasingly video-friendly social media platforms will define this year's World Youth Day experience, said several organizational leaders finalizing their media strategies.
Melina Birchem has uploaded 777 images to her Instagram account over the past two years: sushi, Starbucks, her new tattoo, rosary beads, cowboy boots. Sometimes the juxtaposition is jarring. A glowing monstrance, a chilled margarita. A snapshot from waitressing, a prayer journal documenting her consecration to the Blessed Mother.
- Vatican official to bring message of faith-based ecology
- Catholic Community Foundation grants help Catholic schools
- Twin Cities social worker receives national award
- Archdiocese launches social media to better connect Catholics
Over the past few months, Rediscover-faith.org, the archdiocesan website, www.archspm.org and www.aimhigher.org have been undergoing a subtle transformation.
Entering a church, we Catholics reach for the holy water font, dip our fingers in, and, with dripping fingers, make the Sign of the Cross.
Reading and viewing Catholic media has a lot of similarities with that act of blessing one’s self.
Pride, humility and social media