Look In The Mirror

When we get deeper into Pope Francis’ encyclical (#47), we find a mirror into which we all should look.   

47. Furthermore, when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously (my emphasis).  In this context, the great sages of the past run the risk of going unheard amid the noise and distractions of an information overload.

Efforts need to be made to help these media become sources of new cultural progress for humanity and not a threat to our deepest riches. True wisdom, as the fruit of self-examination, dialogue and generous encounter between persons, is not acquired by a mere accumulation of data which eventually leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution.

Real relationships with others, with all the challenges they entail, now tend to be replaced by a type of internet communication which enables us to choose or eliminate relationships at whim (my emphasis) thus giving rise to a new type of contrived emotion which has more to do with devices and displays than with other people and with nature.

Today’s media do enable us to communicate and to share our knowledge and affections. Yet at times they also shield us from direct contact with the pain, the fears and the joys of others and the complexity of their personal experiences (my emphasis).  For this reason, we should be concerned that, alongside the exciting possibilities offered by these media, a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations, or a harmful sense of isolation, can also arise.

Good conversation with eye-to-eye contact and give-and-take between two people with facial expressions and body language are being replaced with detached, electronic communication.  How many of us have sent ill-advised e-mails, for example, that have been misunderstood and have damaged our relationships?   

We all enjoy the great benefits we get from our phones and computers.  However, Pope Francis warns us not to abandon our age-old ways of communicating and interacting.   Now, it’s just too easy to detach ourselves from other people, “phone it in,” and eventually fall prey to “a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations” isolating ourselves even from family and friends.

Deacon David Pierce