In a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, expressed concern about the damaging effects of social networking sites and other forms of electronic communication. "I think there's a worry," he argued, "that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we’re losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together and building a community."
The Archbishop added: "We're losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person’s mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point. Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together."
Undoubtedly, the use of electronic communication can be problematic and dehumanising. For example, recent research indicates that today's fast-paced media culture is damaging moral decision-making. However, there's also a more positive side to electronic communications. Text and email communication can enhance relationships.
The quick text to a friend who you know would smile at something you've just seen or said, or an email to see how their day in the office is going can enrich relationships. Speaking personally, as someone who recently left home and was concerned to keep in contact with people, I know that social networking sites, e-mails and mobile phones have made a difficult job easier than ever before. Similarly, the fact that I can now contact with ease one of my best friends currently trekking across Asia through Facebook makes me feel very content with society's current communication opportunities.
Of course, the Archbishop is right to point out that social networking can be manipulated to damage children. As Chair of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children, Nichols is concerned that the formation of social networking's "transient relationships" can leave children feeling "desolate" when they collapse. However, perhaps these experiences are a necessary part of growing up. In her government report, Children and New Technology, Tanya Byron concluded: "At a public swimming pool we have gates, put up signs and shallow ends, but we also teach children how to swim." In her view, community leaders should support children through those periods rather than trying to prevent them from being experienced.
Clearly, social networking can play some role in spreading pro-suicide messages, a problem which the campaigners against teenage suicide, Papyrus, are (quite rightly) lobbying Parliament to address. The promotion of suicide is never acceptable on these networks. However, this phenomenon does not exclusively post-date MySpace. After a 2-decade survey in 1947-1968 - long before the arrival of personal electronic communication - Dr. David Phillips found that, in the month following any given highly-publicised suicide, an average of 58 more people than usual killed themselves. Papyrus has warned that social networks provide teenagers with immediacy. This is something which eases the spread of suicidal tendencies and makes ‘cooling off’ almost impossible.
In acknowledging the problems associated with electronic communication, we must recognise the enormous benefits of the Internet age. Social networking, emails and mobile phones, for all their weaknesses, might enhance human relationships, especially during periods of rapid cultural change and increasing mobility. The Archbishop is evidently aware of this: XT3.com, the Catholic Church's own social-networking site, is prominently advertised on his website as “More than a social network site, even the Pope uses it.“
Nathan Jones is an Intern with Theos and a History & Politics student at St Catherine's College, Oxford.
