Impact on Social Networking sites in Human Life

1. Impact on Social Networking sites in Human Life

2. What are the Social Dimensions to Cyberspace? The social interaction sites that are widely used today include Facebook, My Space, Youtube, Twitter, MSN, Blogs, Emailing. These social interaction sites can be seen as new found communities and a great way to keep touch with friends and make new friends, but they can also be seen as a diversion from healthy face to face relationships.

3. Why do young people use social interaction websites? • Today’s youth, as well as inheriting a tradition of secularisation, are subject to an electronically conditioned, global village culture that colours their view of religion itself and offers many alternative sources of meaning and values that can be incorporated into identity. • Young people yearn for community and a sense of belonging. • Many young people feel a need for different ways of connecting with community groups by comparison with those that were taken for granted by earlier generations. If youth needs for community meanings are different from the traditional, then different styles of community may be required if they are to be expected to participate.

4. Can cyberspace users become addicted to Social Networking Sites at the expense of Face to Face Relationships? • Sociologist Professor Ray Pahl states Facebook social networks are "not real". Instead, he says, "They mimic the playground insecurities of primary school kids, piling up friends to find their social niche". "When people grow up and settle down, they realise that making friends is not about turning on the computer: it requires real effort," Professor Pahl, of Britain's Essex University, said. • There are signs users could become addicted to social networking at the expense of face-to-face relationships. • A Monash University study found some people were logging into social networks more than twenty times a day. • Researcher Julian Cole said many addicts started because of boredom; diversion became a daily routine.

5. What does the Bible say about being a Community? A Chosen People of God “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’sown people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:9-10 Question: Can we be a people of God in Cyberspace?

6. What are the Benefits of Social Networking Sites? • The best advantage of social networking sites is that these sites allow you to keep in touch with your friends, classmates, and relatives. It is also the most cost effective way to keep in touch with your social network. Here geographical locations are no barrier to staying in touch. • These sites allow you to send and receive messages as well as upload photos and videos. As such, they are very interactive as you can get to see what your friends and relatives are up to. • With social networking sites, you are not bound by any geographical and cultural differences. You get to meet and know a variety of people whose interests are similar to your own. These sites are a window to different cultures and places. • You can build a network of contacts and interact with a lot of people at the same time. As such, you can spread your thoughts and interests to a large number of people.

7. What does Pope Benedict XVI say about new technologies and new relationships? • The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications. • Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding between individuals and communities, and they are turning to them as means of communicating with existing friends, of meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions. • The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening.

8. What are Pope Benedict XVI’s views on the world of digital communication? • Church communities have always used the modern media for fostering communication, engagement with society, and, increasingly, for encouraging dialogue at a wider level. Yet the recent, explosive growth and greater social impact of these media make them all the more important for a fruitful priestly ministry. • Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom10:11, 13-15). • Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies.

9. What does the Pontifical Council for Social Communications say about cyberspace substituting for a real interpersonal community? • Although the virtual reality of cyberspace cannot substitute for real interpersonal community, the incarnational reality of the sacraments and the liturgy, or the immediate and direct proclamation of the gospel, it can complement them, attract people to a fuller experience of the life of faith, and enrich the religious lives of users. It also provides the Church with a means for communicating with particular groups—young people and young adults, the elderly and home-bound, persons living in remote areas, the members of other religious bodies—who otherwise may be difficult to reach. Source: PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS THE CHURCH AND INTERNET

10. What do other authors have to say about these issues? Christian Life as Community Life “By identifying him – or herself as a Christian, a person belongs to a community of faith, a community that shares common beliefs and practices and that has as its reason for existence a call to live as disciples of and witnesses to Jesus of Nazareth. By being part of this community, a Christian inherits a tradition of moral life and reflection. The common life of the community can guide the individual in developing a person moral understanding, his or her own attempt to respond to what is good.” Source: GASCOIGNE, R. Freedom and Purpose: An Introduction to Christian Ethics (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2004)