100 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
100 lines
5.8 KiB
HTML
<p>Anyone that knows me personally - or maybe I've mentioned this in a
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previous post - knows that I'm generally a technology skeptic. I'm
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highly skeptical of new technologies, and I'm very conscious about the
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negative effects they seem to have on our lives. This is so to the
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extent that I do not use a smart-phone and I refuse to make use of
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social-media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. In the case of
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Facebook specifically, I used to have one, and when I got rid of it
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(initially for privacy reasons) I had discovered how much of an absolute
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time suck it was for me. But this even goes into other means of
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communication, like how I often prefer e-mail over other means of
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instant communication, or this very website which is absolutely spartan
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in its design and maintenance.</p>
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<p>Perhaps my largest critique of modern media specifically has been
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superficiality. If one takes a look at the kind of content that is
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absolutely abundant on most of these media platforms, it is mostly
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superficial nonsense. Very flashy, very trendy, very catchy nonsense. It
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may even be nonsense related to a cause I sympathize with, but being
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reduced to nothing but pure image, pure superficiality, I cannot help
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but feel repulsed by the lack of real content. However, recently I've
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begun to rethink my view on these platforms (although not necessarily
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the content to which I have previously referred).</p>
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<p>I've been listening to a few episodes of Bishop Robert Barron's Word
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on Fire ministry<sup><a href="#r1" >[1]</a></sup>, and something that he
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he insists upon very much is the use of new means of communication (or
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media) to connect with more people (especially youth). He mentions
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especially his use of some platforms like Reddit, Facebook, and YouTube,
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where he has done a lot of work of online evangelization, not by posting
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content that superficially appeal to the viewer's senses (i.e.
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sensationalism), but rather by posting content that truly contains
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profound meaning, forcing the viewer to actually think and not simply
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react. And by thinking, meditating, and reflecting upon that content,
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the viewer can truly internalize what is being said in a meaningful way
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instead of a catchy post that will soon be forgotten, as they simply
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move on with their lives.</p>
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<p>Before getting into the main point of this article, I did want to
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stop here to point out that this is actually what evangelization should
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be about. If someone is exposed to the Good News as if it were just
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another post in their feed, then we're not doing our work of
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evangelizing correctly. The Good News needs to be something that sticks,
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that profoundly impacts people's lives. If it's not doing this, we're
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doing something wrong. And this is a high bar to meet indeed, but one we
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have to work towards nonetheless.</p>
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<p>Now, getting into the actual point of this post which is more general
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and does not only apply to evangelization. What this got me thinking is
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something that, although I had always somewhat acknowledged this, I
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hadn't truly internalized it: a technology is good or bad depending on
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how it is used. Although technology most certainly does impact the way
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we do things, and there are some which most definitely make meaningful
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use difficult or near impossible, when it comes to new media we can find
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ways of using these in a meaningful and good manner. The fact of the
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matter is, even traditional media such as film or literature can be
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meaningful or trivial depending on the use which is made of it. We've
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seen how in television there are really good and thoughtful TV shows,
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but there are also trivial shows that do nothing to stimulate us
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intellectually relying simply on cheap entertainment.</p>
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<p>So what about modern media? It's truly the same thing. It can be used
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adequately, but we need to know how, and we need to learn to sift the
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content we consume on these platforms, just as we do with traditional
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media, and always making sure that it's using the platform in a manner
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which is compatible with its <i>modus operandi</i>.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the easiest mistake to fall into is that meaningful media is
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simply media we agree with, that tells us what we want to hear. But this
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isn't it at all. Many times this leads us to simply finding absolutely
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trivial media that stimulate our senses, and therefore cause a very
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superficial gratification. Meaningful media shouldn't be necessarily
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that which we agree with or stimulates our senses, but rather that which
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causes us to think, that which stimulates our mind.</p>
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<p>It's also worth noting that not every platform will be useful for
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publishing content of the same kind of caliber or kind, but may be
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useful as an auxiliary. As an example, last I knew the media platform
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Twitter allows only 140 character (or maybe now it's up to 250, I
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haven't checked). It's truly difficult, if not impossible, to publish
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anything meaningful in simply 140 characters, and as a consequence I've
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seen examples of people chaining multiple Twitter posts/replies together
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in order to form longer messages. This simply is a bad use of the
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platform. It's not what it was made for. Much less for having long
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drawn-out discussions. Instead, Twitter is the ideal platform for people
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to subscribe to quick updates on things like events, or to post links to
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posts on another platform (where the discussion can truly take place).
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That is, making Twitter not a place where one finds the content itself,
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but a reference to the actual meaningful content.</p>
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<p>Obviously, I'm not going to say how each platform should be used,
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primarily because I don't have an account on any social media platform.
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I'm content with my website and e-mail as my public means of
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communication. However, I believe that this provides a general guideline
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for how to navigate social media and sift out the trivial, picking only
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that which is meaningful.</p>
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<ol class="refs" >
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<li id="r1" ><a href="https://www.wordonfire.org/" >Word on Fire</a></li>
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</ol>
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