Anglonautes.com
Much of the country, as well as the world, has been captivated by the election of the first non-European Pontiff in over 1,200 years. Regardless of one's religious bent (or lack thereof) we can all appreciate the historical significance of this moment. The elevation of the first member of the Jesuits to the Seat of Peter holds special significance for those of us privileged to have been educated in schools run by the order. One of the primary missions of the Jesuits is to educate young people around the world and in this country they run such colleges and universities as Boston College, Fairfield, Holy Cross and Fordham. The Superior General of the Order, Adolfo Nicolas, recently gave a speech on the role of technology in our world today.
"When one can access so much information so quickly and so painlessly; when one can express and publish to the world one’s reactions so immediately and so unthinkingly in one’s blogs or micro-blogs; when the latest opinion column from the New York Times or El Pais, or the newest viral video can be spread so quickly to people half a world away, shaping their perceptions and feelings, then the laborious, painstaking work of serious, critical thinking often gets short-circuited.
[When] one can “cut-and-paste” without the need to think critically or write accurately or come to one’s own careful conclusions. When…the ugly or unpleasant sounds of the world can be shut out by one’s MP3 music player, then one’s vision, one’s perception of reality, one’s desiring can also remain shallow.
When one can become “friends” so quickly and so painlessly with mere acquaintances or total strangers on one’s social networks – and if one can so easily “unfriend” another without the hard work of encounter or, if need be, confrontation and then reconciliation – then relationships can also become superficial."
What do you think?
It's very cool that you blogged about this - in public schools teachers are often so reluctant to go anywhere near religion, and I feel it does a disservice to our students to pretend it doesn't exist. This is huge world news regardless of your beliefs!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this speech excerpt - as I attended a Jesuit university (Fairfield, as you mentioned - Go Stags!) the thoughts in his speech were quite characteristic of the Jesuit attitude, as the Jesuits value a LOT of self-reflection, critical thinking, and finding deeper meaning in your work and your life. Regardless of our religion, we can definitely all take something away from this.
I guess I can see both sides of this. Yes, some people will post unedited, poorly composed garbage on blogs because they can. There is a lot of junk to wade through, and things get posted that probably never should have seen the light of day. Facebook and Twitter are the perfect outlet for drama llamas and I agree that "friendships" can be taken lightly when "face time" is taken out of the equation.
ReplyDeleteBut there are a lot of blogs out there that have a great deal to offer to their readers, and without the internet their reach would be so limited. The only "authors" you would hear from would be those who managed to score a book deal, and then all you'd get is their book... whereas now you can read and enjoy their published fiction... and if you want to also know more about their writing process and inspiration, you can go to their author blog. If you want to interact with them, you can follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook. I think it's kind of amazing, honestly.
I would also offer that the people who constantly friend and unfriend? Or start silly spats via social networks? Probably act in a similar fashion in their offline lives. Like everything else, technology is what you make of it.