Blog 1!

The Internet, the quintessential example of what The Communications Revolution Is Capable Of, has gone from being a way for a handful of eggheads at various universities to trade research to the most important technology since the printing press.


The ability for people to communicate with potentially billions of people has given rise to social-networking websites where an entire second life—to steal a phrase—is possible.

The biggest news about this communications revolution is the fact that people who have typically not been great users of the Internet or computers in general now have an online presence. Elderly grandmothers sending jokes and such in email has been a common phenomenon for years, but the Catholic Church has recently got into the game.

Two recent news stories illustrate:

Today the Roman Catholic Church will expand its presence in cyberspace when Pope Benedict XVI launches the Vatican's own channel on YouTube.

The Pope will use the site to post daily news clips, videos of his speeches and other ceremonies from the Vatican, with audio and text in four languages: English, Spanish, German and Italian. The channel is due to go online today during a news conference in the press room of the Holy See in Rome.

"It certainly shows that the church recognizes the value of YouTube and making itself as accessible as widely as possible using whatever means possible," said Rev. John Pungente, an ordained Catholic priest and executive director of the Jesuit Communication Project in Toronto.

Father Pungente also suggested the Vatican should consider getting a Facebook page or an account with the micro-blogging site Twitter.

source:theglobeandmail.com

But also:

Pope Benedict XVI says social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can foster friendships and understanding, but warns they also can isolate people and marginalize others.

Benedict urged a culture of online respect in his annual message Friday for the World Day of Communications.

Benedict welcomes as a "gift" new technologies such as social networking sites, saying they respond to the "fundamental desire" of people to communicate.

But he also warns that "obsessive" virtual socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already marginalized.

He urges producers to ensure that the content respects human dignity and the "goodness and intimacy of human sexuality."

source: Associated Press via huffingtonpost.com


While this may signal the start of a new chapter in the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI appears to see the Internet as both a force for good (in the sense that it can bring people closer together than ever before) and evil (in that it can also, paradoxically, isolate people from one another, trading face-to-face contact for the more distant, at-arms-length world of online.)