«We are members one of another» (Eph 4:25).
From social network communities to the human community
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Ever since the internet first became available, the Church
has always sought to promote its use in the service of the encounter between
persons, and of solidarity among all. With this Message, I would like to invite
you once again to reflect on the foundation and importance of our being-in-
relation and to rediscover, in the vast array of challenges of the current
communications context, the desire of the human person who does not want to be
left isolated and alone.
The metaphors of the net and community
Today’s media environment is so pervasive as to be
indistinguishable from the sphere of everyday life. The Net is a resource of
our time. It is a source of knowledge and relationships that were once
unthinkable. However, in terms of the profound transformations technology has
brought to bear on the process of production, distribution and use of content,
many experts also highlight the risks that threaten the search for, and sharing
of, authentic information on a global scale. If the Internet represents an
extraordinary possibility of access to knowledge, it is also true that it has
proven to be one of the areas most exposed to disinformation and to the
conscious and targeted distortion of facts and interpersonal relationships,
which are often used to discredit.
We need to recognize how social networks, on the one hand,
help us to better connect, rediscover, and assist one another, but on the
other, lend themselves to the manipulation of personal data, aimed at obtaining
political or economic advantages, without due respect for the person and his or
her rights. Statistics show that among young people one in four is involved in
episodes of cyberbullying. [1]
In this complex scenario, it may be useful to reflect again
on the metaphor of the net, which was the basis of the Internet to begin with,
to rediscover its positive potential. The image of the net invites us to
reflect on the multiplicity of lines and intersections that ensure its
stability in the absence of a centre, a hierarchical structure, a form of
vertical organization. The networks because all its elements share
responsibility.
From an anthropological point of view, the metaphor of the
net recalls another meaningful image: the community. A community is that much
stronger if it is cohesive and supportive, if it is animated by feelings of
trust, and pursues common objectives. The community as a network of solidarity
requires mutual listening and dialogue, based on the responsible use of
language.
Everyone can see how, in the present scenario, social
network communities are not automatically synonymous with community. In the
best cases, these virtual communities are able to demonstrate cohesion and
solidarity, but often they remain simply groups of individuals who recognize
one another through common interests or concerns characterized by weak bonds.
Moreover, in the social web identity is too often based on
opposition to the other, the person outside the group: we define ourselves
starting with what divides us rather than with what unites us, giving rise to
suspicion and to the venting of every kind of prejudice (ethnic, sexual,
religious and other). This tendency encourages groups that exclude diversity,
that even in the digital environment nourish unbridled individualism which
sometimes ends up fomenting spirals of hatred. In this way, what ought to be a
window on the world becomes a showcase for exhibiting personal narcissism.
The Net is an opportunity to promote encounter with others,
but it can also increase our self- isolation, like a web that can entrap us.
Young people are the ones most exposed to the illusion that the social web can
completely satisfy them on a relational level. There is the dangerous
phenomenon of young people becoming “social hermits” who risk alienating
themselves completely from society. This dramatic situation reveals a serious
rupture in the relational fabric of society, one we cannot ignore.
This multiform and dangerous reality raises various
questions of an ethical, social, juridical, political and economic nature, and
challenges the Church as well. While governments seek legal ways to regulate
the web and to protect the original vision of a free, open and secure network,
we all have the possibility and the responsibility to promote its positive use.
Clearly, it is not enough to multiply connections in order
to increase mutual understanding. How, then, can we find our true communitarian
identity, aware of the responsibility we have towards one another in the online
network as well?
“We are members one of another”
A possible answer can be drawn from a third metaphor: that
of the body and the members, which Saint Paul uses to describe the reciprocal
relationship among people, based on the organism that unites them. “Therefore,
putting away falsehood, speak the truth, each to his neighbour, for we are
members one of another” (Eph 4:25). Being members one of another is the
profound motivation with which the Apostle invites us to put away falsehood and
speak the truth: the duty to guard the truth springs from the need not to belie
the mutual relationship of communion. Truth is revealed in communion. Lies, on
the other hand, are a selfish refusal to recognize that we are members of one
body; they are a refusal to give ourselves to others, thus losing the only way
to find ourselves.
The metaphor of the body and the members leads us to reflect
on our identity, which is based on communion and on “otherness”. As Christians,
we all recognize ourselves as members of the one body whose head is Christ.
This helps us not to see people as potential competitors, but to consider even
our enemies as persons. We no longer need an adversary in order to define
ourselves, because the all-encompassing gaze we learn from Christ leads us to
discover otherness in a new way, as an integral part and condition of
relationship and closeness.
Such a capacity for understanding and communication among
human persons is based on the communion of love among the divine Persons. God
is not Solitude, but Communion; he is Love, and therefore communication,
because love always communicates; indeed, it communicates itself in order to
encounter the other. In order to communicate with us and to communicate himself
to us, God adapts himself to our language, establishing a real dialogue with
humanity throughout history (cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic
Constitution Dei Verbum, 2).
By virtue of our being created in the image and likeness of
God who is communion and communication-of-Self, we carry forever in our hearts
the longing for living in communion, for belonging to a community. “Nothing, in
fact, is as specific to our nature as entering into a relationship one with
another, having need of one another,” says Saint Basil.[2]
The present context calls on all of us to invest in
relationships, and to affirm the interpersonal nature of our humanity,
including in and through the network. All the more so, we Christians are called
to manifest that communion which marks our identity as believers. Faith itself,
in fact, is a relationship, an encounter; and under the impetus of God’s love,
we can communicate, welcome and understand the gift of the other and respond to
it.
Communion in the image of the Trinity is precisely what
distinguishes the person from the individual. From faith in God who is Trinity,
it follows that in order to be myself I need others. I am truly human, truly
personal, only if I relate to others. In fact, the word “person” signifies the
human being as a “face”, whose face is turned towards the other, who is engaged
with others. Our life becomes more human insofar as its nature becomes less
individual and more personal; we see this authentic path of becoming more human
in one who moves from being an individual who perceives the other as a rival,
to a person who recognizes others as travelling companions.
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