The Church and the Internet
How is the Internet changing our world?
What does the
future hold?
These were the questions discussed at the the 3rd biennial
conference on the Internet and Society at Harvard University, 31 May - 2 June
2000. I attended as chair of our diocesan Evangelization Commission,
though the issues are most profoundly affecting the two areas that I spent most
of my time with: young adults and higher education.
I was interested in learning about both the societal issues which the Church may need to
address, and how we might make better use of technology in our witness to the
gospel.
Limits of technology—and possibilities
I was most surprised
by the fact that the
leading developers of today's technology were the loudest voices
calling for us to recognize its limitations. Mitch Kapor (founder of
Lotus) set the tone for much of the conference in a presentation in which he
referred to himself as a "recovering techno-utopian."
Though the Internet is a powerful communications medium, and though it has
expanded in less than ten years from a strictly text-based medium to
"virtual reality," it is still highly restricted
in "emotional bandwidth." Body language,
emotion, and nuance are stripped from communication, giving us content, but depriving us
of character and intent. It is very easy, therefore, for e-mail and BB conversations to get out of hand—leading to
the "flame-wars" that are a common on-line occurrence. At best, Kapor said, Internet
communication will leverage and expand insights and arguments that
come from face-to-face interaction, but important discussions will always
take place in person.
Another
way to make this point is to say that genuine human interaction is always
embodied. And is this not the point of Catholic liturgy and sacramentals—and
one of the main differences between Catholic and Protestant practice? We
see sign and symbol as not only permitted, but as essential to human
discourse. The extreme branches of the Reformation wanted to reduce
worship to the Word; some smashed statutes and organs as a consequence.
But worship is not just preaching of a sermon, to convey to us unchangeable
propositions. It is, rather, a medley of sight, sound, smell, and
movement. All that we are is brought before God, as gifts we have
received, and as gifts to be offered in His praise. This was true of
Jewish worship, but it has become even more important for Christians in the
light of the Incarnation. God not only created material things, and called
them "good," but has assumed our human flesh and blood in Jesus
Christ. Technology will never replace the essential, simple, bodily acts
of Christian worship: washing with water, anointing with oil, and breaking
Bread.
But our concern for the goodness of creation, and the importance of the human
person extends beyond worship. The dignity of the human person is the
foundation of Catholic teaching on social ethics. It is a dignity which
derives from our creation in the image of God, not on our usefulness to society,
and is thus inalienable. Looking at the role of science and technology in
human life from this perspective, we can affirm that they are good and useful, but must
always be servants of human good, not the masters of our destiny.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
2293. ... Science and technology are precious
resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral
development for the benefit of all. By themselves however they cannot disclose
the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are
ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development; hence they
find in the person and in his moral values both evidence of their purpose and
awareness of their limits.
2294. ... Science and technology ... must be at the
service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and
integral good, in conformity with the plan and the will of God. (Catechism
of the Catholic Church)
Pope John Paul II elaborated on this point in discussing issues of
development in Asia.
33. Human beings, not wealth or technology, are the prime
agents and destination of development. Therefore, the kind of development that
the Church promotes reaches far beyond questions of economy and technology. It
begins and ends with the integrity of the human person created in the image of
God and endowed with a God-given dignity and inalienable human rights. The
various international declarations on human rights and the many initiatives
which these have inspired are a sign of growing attention on a worldwide level
to the dignity of the human person. Unfortunately, these declarations are
often violated in practice. Fifty years after the solemn proclamation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many people are still subjected to the
most degrading forms of exploitation and manipulation, which make them
veritable slaves to those who are more powerful, to an ideology, economic
power, oppressive political systems, scientific technocracy or the
intrusiveness of the mass media. (John Paul II, Ecclesia
in Asia)
Yet John Paul II has also affirmed that we need to make full use of
communications technologies (and the Vatican's website is a leader in Catholic
Internet presence). In his 1999
post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia
in America, he said that "knowledge and use of the
media, whether the more traditional forms or those which technology has
produced in recent times, is indispensable. Contemporary reality demands a
capacity to learn the language, nature and characteristics of mass
media." And because "the media also help to shape the culture
and mentality of people today, ... there must be special pastoral activity aimed
at those working in the media."
New pastoral issues
Besides the use of the Internet as a communication tool, we also need to be
aware of new pastoral challenges which are raised. The Catechism
notes that
2496. The means of social communication
(especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users,
making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users
should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media.
They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences the more easily to
resist unwholesome influences. (Catechism
of the Catholic Church)
This was written just around the time we began to hear about "Internet addiction"
and "cybersex." Obviously the Internet did not create pornography or give
birth to addictions, but the ease of access has brought these from the
"adult" book store to the living room. The Harvard Conference
acknowledged these issues, but did not address them as I had
hoped. It was said that the popularity of cyberporn is one of the main
reasons for the "gender divide" between male and female users. It has
also been acknowledged in other forums that pornography has driven the growth of technology,
seeking ever greater bandwidth and multimedia quality. But as
Professor Anthony Oettinger noted in a panel discussion, that has been the case
since the days of antiquity.
Other social justice issues were discussed at
length. There was much talk about the
"digital divide" between those with access and those without. I
wonder if this is not so much an economic divide as it is a generational divide—as
the numbers on use of Internet among different age brackets tends to suggest.
Age Range |
18-29 |
30-49 |
50-64 |
65+ |
Percentage
of Internet Use |
66% |
58% |
41% |
13% |
Other issues relate to privacy and to criminal justice.
Should
information on convicted criminals be posted on websites by the government after they
have served their time? Or does this extend a sentence from a matter of
years in prison to a lifetime of suspicion and surveillance?
And consider the potential impact on society from the next great
technological leap, which Jerry
Greenburg of Sapient suggests will be to tie
wireless broadband Internet access to GPS. Integrating this technology with information that
companies have obtained from you about purchasing habits, pricing of basic
commodities could become as variable as airline fares. Will poor neighborhoods
suddenly find themselves abandoned by distributors who will go where the most
money can be earned? Will government regulation keep pace?
Educational concerns
 Though some techno-utopians imagine that on-line education may replace
"brick and mortar" colleges, I think most of the speakers were agreed
that the educational use of the new technology also has important limitations—and
these are related to the humanistic concerns I first raised. This was most effectively addressed by President
Rudenstine of Harvard. A thousand courses at Harvard have a course webpage. The
most effective uses, he said, include web-based class discussion groups and e-mail questioning of
professor. He finds it hard to imagine how teaching could be done fully on line. Research
requires libraries with manuscripts and rare books. And education itself has communal
values. College education takes place in a learning community in which students must come to grips
with diversity and with other perspectives. Human discussion, debate,
development, and personal relationships can’t be replaced by the Internet.
 Yet the Internet can expand the classroom in a way never before possible.
Primary educator Kristi Rennebohm Franz shared her use of Internet as a way to
connect the realities of her students with the realities of students around the
world. It's a methodology based on that of Paolo Freire (cf., The Pedagogy of
the Oppressed). Students are linked with hospital patients at a Ronald
McDonald House, with children in Nicaragua through a Peace Corps partnership,
with children in South Africa via a project about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Exposure to the realities of others enables them to reflect critically on their
own reality, and then to consider possible responses.
Website evaluation
I spent some time reflecting on the website of my employer, and the section of
it for my department. There are a number of critical questions we need to
ask (assuming we have agreed that appropriation of web technology is an
essential tool for evangelization). It is not enough to have a webpage;
there are lots of bad ones, and there are some which, though interesting on
first glance, are not worth a second visit. A new buzz-word is
"stickiness": What will keep visitors on our site, and bring them back?
Content must be kept up-to-date, and must be unique. Is navigation
easy and clear? Is the site static, or interactive? Some of the most
popular sites provide visitors the opportunity to have input; to be, as it were,
"co-creators." Dare we develop on-line "virtual"
communities for faith sharing and witness? Technology and change
Finally, some thoughts on change. Helping people (and institutions)
cope with change will be one of the greatest pastoral needs in the years to
come. But this is nothing new. As John Henry Newman said, "In a
higher world it is otherwise, but here below, to live is to change").
Harvard President Rudenstine noted that change in technology has always been accompanied by
fears and adjustment. Early railroad passengers found themselves susceptible
to motion sickness and dizziness as they tried to watch passing scenery in the
same way they had while traveling in a carriage — they had to learn to shift
their gaze from the trackbed to a point further out. Even the development
of public libraries bred fears
that excessive solitary reading would damage health, digestion, and
socialization.
But the reality of change cannot simply be dismissed. As technology
changes, society must be able to adapt, or face consequences. We're all
familiar with the old IBM
stereotype of businessman in navy blue suit and white shirt. In their
corporate culture, Research and Development was carried out by a few people in
an isolated department. There was a clear hierarchy. To those who
benefited from such a corporate culture, a photo of the MicroSoft team in 1978
would hardly have seemed threatening. This was a diverse group of young
men and women with casual clothes and long hair. But contrasting
graphs of profits, gross revenue, number of employees, and revenue per employee
demonstrate at a glance how quickly MS left IBM in dust. These points were made
in a presentation by Ben Levitan of Viant, who showed how workplace culture must
be structured to be able to adapt quickly to change. At Viant, corporate
structure is decentralized and non-hierarchical.
Technologies are embraced which facilitate rapid communication (Internet, wireless, video
conferencing). Corporate culture values trust,
empowerment, respect, on-going learning and the ability to forge close relationships quickly with
customers. Offices are located to permit easy access and to restrict
over-development. They are in urban locations, close to street level, to keep close to
the
real world. Each office is located entirely on one floor, with no more than 125 or so people in one
city. It is a tribal environment, in which all live and work together, and
ideas can come
from anywhere, anytime. But IBM was a stable culture for generations,
with promise of longevity with the company; today's "dot.coms" are
characterized by instability and promises to employees of "stock
options" — just in case the company makes it big.
It's not only corporate culture that is changing as a result of
technological advance. Personal identity is also affected. Pippa
Norris of JFK School of Government noted that the invention of radio helped
to develop a sense of American national identity (in contrast to earlier
regionalisms). The Internet will give a sense of global identity. And yet it
will also retard assimilation of new immigrant populations.
She gave herself as an example; an immigrant from England, if she had come 20 years ago she would have been more fully
assimilated and more quickly (reading the New York Times, watching
ABC, eating American food). Today, she is able to watch BBC, read the London
Times, and eat readily available British foods.
Andy Grove of Intel relishes the prospect of change. Instead of fearing
it, he said, "Embrace that which confounds you most."
Never has so much info been available to so many for so little. Barriers to
access are minimal — the Internet is a self-teaching medium, and access to it eliminates age, ethnic,
economic, geographical barriers. But access alone is meaningless…education
and culture have become new barriers. The challenge is the need to participate and encourage
participation. Many people find change threatening. And there are indeed many kinds of
threats associated with the new technology (viruses, the Y2K scare,
etc.). But he noted that most of the
20th century was lived under the shadow of nuclear threat.
He's optimistic that ethics and dialogue will
prevail.
We, too, have reason to be optimistic. Not because threats are
slight or because technology is powerful, but because we are in the hands of
a God who is more powerful than our abilities to destroy ourselves. To him
must we turn our eyes, looking beyond our fears and beyond the fascination and
threat of the world.
1723. "The beatitude we are promised confronts us
with decisive moral choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad
instincts and to seek the love of God above all else. It teaches us that true
happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in
any human achievement— however beneficial it may be—such as science,
technology, and art, or indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source
of every good and of all love." Catechism
of the Catholic Church
On-line resources
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