According to the Church’s document of the Second Vatican Council ‘Inter Mirifica’, Decree on the Means of Social Communication no1 “The Church welcomes and promotes with special interest those (marvellous technological inventions) which have a most direct relation to men's minds and which have uncovered new avenues of communicating most readily news, views and teachings of every sort.

The most important of these inventions are those media which… can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication.” 

Quoting directly No 4 of the document The Church and the Internet “Three decades ago Communio et Progressio pointed out that “modern media offer new ways of confronting people with the message of the Gospel”. Pope Paul VI said the Church “would feel guilty before the Lord if it failed to use the media for evangelization”.

Pope John Paul II has called the media “The first Areopagus of the modern age”, and added that “it is not enough to use the media simply to spread the Christian message and the Church's authentic teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that Christian message into the ‘new culture' created by modern communications”. Doing that is all the more important at this time, since not only do the media now strongly influence what people think about life but also to a great extent we can say that today “human experience itself is an experience of media”. 

Thus, we can say that not only should we use the media but we must integrate the Christian message into the new culture the media has created. That’s the task we have before us, that is, how do we integrate the Christian message into the new culture of Social Media? And that is the only way we can be truly responsible in the use of Social Media which means our use of Social Media must reflect our Christian life.

 

The Culture of Social Media

There was a time that all social life was not more that conversations at social events such as weddings, burials, anniversaries etc. Then, posting letters was almost the only means to send information to a distant place. The advent of radio and television made things more interesting and now, with the advent of internet and its children Social Media, Blogs, Websites etc. delivering a reflection can actually be going on live and not just live, real-time feedback can be coming in just immediately. – Everything has changed. Hence, we must pay more attention.

To say that the Social Media is already a culture that affects our way of life, thoughts and actions is to say the least. Almost every one of us is affected by the common trends on Social Media irrespective of where it is coming from. Today, the world of Social Media influences us in tremendous ways that things go viral such that even those not on Social Media catches it on. Social Media has gone beyond just an online platform for communication. It has become a community on its own such that we can comfortably call ‘Facebook’ a society or town today just as we call Ado Ekiti a town except that Facebook is not physical and that makes it even more massive. This is so because Social Media creates jobs (talk of millions that social media influencers and content creators make online), it also has its own culture and way of life. There are today vast, informal networks of online venues – public and private, paid and free subscriptions, large and small – for variety of purposes, family celebrations, political campaigns, charitable promotions, health support groups, sports clubs, prayer groups etc.       

The culture of Social Media is easily viewed with how the traditional view of space and time has been totally transformed. We no longer need physical contact to communicate and enjoy each other’s company, indeed the world has become not just a global village but a global space with no more boundaries. 

Pope Benedict XVI calls the world of Social Media, “The Digital Continent”. The fact that we can now communicate from different places without restriction of place and distance has shattered the culture of space and boundaries. Also, the culture of time has been transformed with faster and better way of communication irrespective of locations on the globe. On Zoom calls now, what we simply hear is ‘what time is it in your location’? And that is all. Again, Social Media today now create its own culture that is universal; all it takes is for one person to start a dance and everyone start dancing it like gwo gwo n gwo by Brain Jotter, a popular Nigerian comedian.    

Social Media Culture can be explained in three different parts namely, Communication, Socialization and Change.

Communication: The first Social Media platform Six Degrees invented in 1997 has the aim of connecting individuals who had first, second or third degree relationships to communicate, share stories about mutual friends and work such that by connecting individuals who are towns, states, countries or continents apart, Six Degrees allowed individuals to quickly and easily communicate, thereby leading to an increased sense of connectedness. Even though Six Degree has since gone into extinction, other Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now x) have the same aim first and foremost to give users ability to communicate and feel connected.

Socialization: Social Media serves as the new purpose of teaching individuals what is socially acceptable because of its accessibility and wide coverage. Because Social Media has transformed the space, there is much more interaction among peers irrespective of cultures or nationalities and this social contagious effect takes place which leads to certain behaviours, attitudes and beliefs that can be obtained from those within the social network. Social Media thereby becomes the new school of teaching individuals how they should act and be accepted by their peers and even society. In this millennium, Social Media plays a huge role in indoctrination of individuals into the society. Videos on youtube and tiktok have influence than parents these days.

Change: The third categorization of the Social Media culture that needs to be transformed by Christian Spirit is Change. Change used to be a by-product of Social Media but today is one of the goals of users. We saw the #EndSars movement in Nigeria against police brutality and its effect, #Blacklivesmatter in America against injustices against African-Americans whereby Social Media was used for the purpose of change. This is common in political arrangements today. Only one hashtag movement is required to drive a change through the social media.                  

Social Media is the new world with its own culture. The Social Media is a new society with a strong way of life. It affects fashion, food trends, family values, health issues, news and events, politics and business. Social Media is definitely much more than individuals exchanging words, which mean that posting things can change people’s way of living, it is a new society.

To show how some have understood this influence, some nations such as China, Iran, Turkmenistan have banned Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for 14 years to protect their society from the Social Media influence as if they are banning visa from a particular country. It is for them like blocking their borders from some nations. While this may look like it is working on paper, it may not in reality as there are ways to access Social Media through the backdoor like using VPN etc. It may not definitely work for individuals since one way or the other, our contact with others who had contact with the Social Media will still affect us. 

More so, Social Media is like a double edge sword that avoiding it may mean losing its many benefits. The best stance I will like to adopt is that of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, May 7, 1989, 23rd World Communications Day, Pornography and Violence in the Media no 30 which gave a pastoral response that “Finally, a merely censorious attitude on the part of the Church toward the media is neither sufficient nor appropriate. Instead, the Church should be engaged in continued conversation with responsible communicators to encourage them in their work and to provide assistance where it is needed or requested. Catholic Communicators and their professional organizations - with their special insights and experience - can play a key role in these continuing conversations. 

Thus, we can’t ask the Bishops or Ecclesial Authorities to censure erring faithful (both lay and priests) on Social Media straightaway, either as users or posting content, which may not totally be out of place if what they do seriously contravenes sense of decorum and things proper to priestly attitude. Even though, some Dioceses also have guidelines concerning the use of Social Media. But as the document suggests, we must embrace on-going conversations and reflections as we are doing in this monthly recollection and as we shall continue to do in our various parishes and various levels with the people of God as well. What is much more important is to understand the place of Social Media and bring Christian sentiments into it.