Future Social Dimensions to Cyberspace

By Arch Humphries and Melissa Logozzofor EDRE 623

Focus Question

Youtube, Facebook, My Space and Texting – newfound communities or a diversion from healthy face-to-face relationships?

YouTube Clip

Social Networks and the Internet

What are the Social Dimensions to Cyberspace?

The social interaction sites that are widely used today include Facebook, My Space, Youtube, Twitter, MSN, Blogs, Emailing.

These social interaction sites can be seen as new found communities and a great way to keep touch with friends and make new friends, but they can also be seen as a diversion from healthy face to face relationships.

Why do young people use social interaction websites?

Today’s youth, as well as inheriting a tradition of secularisation, are subject to an electronically conditioned, global village culture that colours their view of religion itself and offers many alternative sources of meaning and values that can be incorporated into identity.

Young people yearn for community and a sense of belonging.

Many young people feel a need for different ways of connecting with community groups by comparison with those that were taken for granted by earlier generations. If youth needs for community meanings are different from the traditional, then different styles of community may be required if they are to be expected to participate.

A number of young people retain a personal website, often with a diary of reflections on their ongoing experience. It is another way of affirming who they feel they are; it is an opportunity for affirmation by others who share similar experiences, likes and dislikes and it gives a ‘virtual’ yet tangible sense of community.

The need for relationships and community was evident in the traditional long phone conversations between teenagers. Now the phenomenon of your own mobile phone and SMS texting allows for the sharing of thoughts and ideas at any time with someone else, even during classes, and from one end of a dining table to the other. It feels like having constant companionship and immediate intimacy – the reassurance of friends and connectedness with them are only a few clicks away.

Can cyberspace users become addicted to

Social Networking Sites at the expense of Face to Face Relationships?

Sociologist Professor Ray Pahl states Facebook social networks are "not real". Instead, he says, "They mimic the playground insecurities of primary school kids, piling up friends to find their social niche". "When people grow up and settle down, they realise that making friends is not about turning on the computer: it requires real effort," Professor Pahl, of Britain's Essex University, said.

There are signs users could become addicted to social networking at the expense of face-to-face relationships.

A Monash University study found some people were logging into social networks more than twenty times a day.

Researcher Julian Cole said many addicts started because of boredom; diversion became a daily routine.

Social networking websites have affected personal relationships to the extent that when a person uses a face-to-face conversation in the same manner that is considered acceptable on Facebook it is then considered out of the norm for “analog” or face-to-face relationships. When creating a “digital” friendship on Facebook, a user will send a friend request to another user in order to establish a “link” of “friendship.” This request can either be accepted or ignored. The user who has sent the request is not informed if the requested friend has denied the invitation. When a user removes someone from their “friends” the person who has been removed is not informed that they are no longer “friends” with the user. This makes ending a “digital” relationship easier for the user. In fact, it makes the user able to avoid any confrontation at all.

Social Networking Sites also have negative effects on offline relationships. Some things found in the site can lead to misinterpretation for some people. Because of online messaging or comments that are visible to everyone in the friends list of a user, an offline relationship can be affected or destroyed due to fights that will happen. For example, a jealous boyfriend saw a comment from a mysterious boy posted on the wall of his girlfriend’s site that says intimate word. As a result of this the relationship between the girl and her boyfriend may be broken. Another negative effect is that as a result of the ability to post comments on the wall of a user becoming much easier, it is much easier for other people to spread rumors and generally gossip. This in turn can destroy the emotional life of an individual. As a larger percentage of communication moves into the digital arena, we may see a general weakening of ties between people. This weakening will be less pervasive amongst a person’s closest circle of friends, but possibly more obvious amongst those friends who are less close, as digital communication will become the primary mode of communication in these relationships.

Facebook DisadvantagesBy Lorna H. Findlay

The human face and body language are rich in meaning and emotion. Critics of text-only communication in cyberspace complain that all these visual cues are missing, hence making the relationship ambiguous and depleted. Advocates of text-driven cyberspace relationships again could reply that this ambiguity creates an opportunity to explore one's transference reactions, thereby enriching the relationship. They also may praise its level playing field. Appearances - such as gender, race, and whether you are “attractive” or not - are irrelevant. Everyone has an equal voice and is judged by the same standards: their words. Some claim that text-only talk carries you past the distracting superficial aspects of a person's existence and connects you more directly to their mind and personality.

Source: The Psychology of Cyberspace RelationshipsBy John Suler, Ph.D

What does the Bible say about being a Community?

A Chosen People of God  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy

nation, God’sown people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

1 Peter 2:9-10

  Question: Can we be a people of God in Cyberspace?

One Body, Many Parts  “For just as the body is one and has many members,

and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 12:12-13  Question: Can we be One Body if we never physically

meet?

What are the Benefits of Social Networking Sites?

The best advantage of social networking sites is that these sites allow you to keep in touch with your friends, classmates, and relatives. It is also the most cost effective way to keep in touch with your social network. Here geographical locations are no barrier to staying in touch.

These sites allow you to send and receive messages as well as upload photos and videos. As such, they are very interactive as you can get to see what your friends and relatives are up to.

With social networking sites, you are not bound by any geographical and cultural differences. You get to meet and know a variety of people whose interests are similar to your own. These sites are a window to different cultures and places.

You can build a network of contacts and interact with a lot of people at the same time. As such, you can spread your thoughts and interests to a large number of people.

What does Pope Benedict XVI say about new technologies and new relationships?

The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications.

Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding between individuals and communities, and they are turning to them as means of communicating with existing friends, of meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions.

The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening.

Friends should support and encourage each other in developing their gifts and talents and in putting them at the service of the human community. In this context, it is gratifying to note the emergence of new digital networks that seek to promote human solidarity, peace and justice, human rights and respect for human life and the good of creation. These networks can facilitate forms of co-operation between people from different geographical and cultural contexts that enable them to deepen their common humanity and their sense of shared responsibility for the good of all.

Source: MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 43rd WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY 

"New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship." [Sunday, 24 May 2009 ]

What are Pope Benedict XVI’s views on the world of digital

communication?

Church communities have always used the modern media for fostering communication, engagement with society, and, increasingly, for encouraging dialogue at a wider level. Yet the recent, explosive growth and greater social impact of these media make them all the more important for a fruitful priestly ministry.

Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:11, 13-15).

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies.

The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts.

Source: MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVIFOR THE 44th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World:New Media at the Service of the Word“[Sunday, 16 May 2010]

What does the Pontifical Council for Social Communications say about cyberspace

substituting for a real interpersonal community?

Although the virtual reality of cyberspace cannot substitute for real interpersonal community, the incarnational reality of the sacraments and the liturgy, or the immediate and direct proclamation of the gospel, it can complement them, attract people to a fuller experience of the life of faith, and enrich the religious lives of users. It also provides the Church with a means for communicating with particular groups—young people and young adults, the elderly and home-bound, persons living in remote areas, the members of other religious bodies—who otherwise may be difficult to reach.

Source: PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS THE CHURCH AND INTERNET

What do other authors have to say about these issues?

Christian Life as Community Life  “By identifying him – or herself as a Christian, a person belongs

to a community of faith, a community that shares common beliefs and practices and that has as its reason for existence a call to live as disciples of and witnesses to Jesus of Nazareth. By being part of this community, a Christian inherits a tradition of moral life and reflection. The common life of the community can guide the individual in developing a person moral understanding, his or her own attempt to respond to what is good.”

Source: GASCOIGNE, R. Freedom and Purpose: An Introduction to

Christian Ethics (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2004)

 

Seeking community, making choices, and having lifestyle options

“The other complicating factor here is that many young people feel a need for different ways of connecting with community groups by comparison with those that were taken for granted by earlier generations. If youth needs for community meanings are different from the traditional, then different styles of community may be required if they are to be expected to participate.”

Source: Crawford, M.L. & Rossiter, G. M. (2006). Reasons for living: Education and young people’s search for meaning, identity and spirituality. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.

Seeking community, making choices, and having lifestyle options

“If being ‘individual’ is central to the outlook of the young, there is equally a yearning for community and a sense of belonging.”

Source: Crawford, M.L. & Rossiter, G. M. (2006). Reasons for living: Education and young people’s search for meaning, identity and spirituality. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.