Reading "Laudato Si" I came across this paragraph on "media and the digital world" which I found particularly interesting. It is "one" paragraph but I believe that each line becomes important in itself and that is why I thought of sharing it in this way.
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"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.
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, 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.
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."
Laudato Si, 47
Pope Francis
Pope Francis