Archbishop Vincent Nichols on MySpace and Facebook

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Archbishop Vincent Nichols on MySpace and Facebook

Blogged by James Preece on 2nd August 2009

Good to see Archbishop Vincent Nichols giving a clear warning about the dangers of MySpace and Facebook this weekend...

"Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together."

The archbishop blamed social network sites for leaving children with impoverished friendships.

"Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities, but I'm wary about it. It's not rounded communication so it won't build a rounded community," he said.

"If we mean by community a genuine growing together and a mutual sharing in an interest that is of some significance then it needs more than Facebook."

He warned that the sites are contributing to a trend for teenagers to put too much importance on the number of friends they have and that this can ultimately lead to suicide.

"Among young people often a key factor in them committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships.

"They throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they're desolate."

[The Telegraph]

I for one am filled with hope at seeing this in the news because I know that Archbishop Nichols is now close to doing something about Terry Prendergast...

Call me old fashioned, but I would say that the breakdown of the family has had a far more profound effect on our ability to build "rounded" communities, generates far more "transianet relationships" and "desolate" young people than social networking sites ever will and defending the family should be far higher up the Archbishops list.

If Archbishop Vincent Nichols is concerned about young people who "throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they're desolate" why is he not doing something to defend traditional marriage from Terry Prendergast?

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Reader Comments

Mark Dobson said...

Heard Sunday's report on this this morning. It's clearly one of those stories where the headline will be a massive exaggeration of what he said, which duly turned out to be the case. These things happen, especially when you mention such an important issue as suicide.

It's Mariokart all over again; social networking isn't inherently bad, but then he didn't say it was. I agree with what he said, but what I'm not clear on is why he felt he had to say it, and stop there. It's not really the sort of thing that we need Archbishops to tell us, I think. I'm sure lots of people have been saying the same thing for ages - I know I've been thinking it.

Facebook etc. is already here. Yes, it's no replacement for real interaction. If that's how it's being used, then we have a problem. Obviously if people can't sustain meaningful relationships in real life, they'll turn to an easy solution like Facebook because it's simpler than facing up to a real social problem.

What we need more than diagnosis is a remedy. It's no good saying Facebook is bad, we need to encourage those real relationships. If the Archbishop can show some leadership on that, he will be doing a very worthwhile thing. And as James implies, this is inseparably bound up with the culture of life and the defence of marriage.

-2

Swefen said...

It's a scientifically unverified statement made by a man in a position of influence that the papers shouldn't have carried. I'm all for speculation, but we shouldn't be publishing guesswork as truth!

Mark Dobson said...

Hmm. To my mind, that Facebook et al don't compare to face-to-face human interaction seems an awful lot like common sense.

I'm not sure what scientific verification of it would look like. I guess social scientists would have something to say about it, but then so would sarcastic physicists, I'm sure...

And as to transient relationships being a factor in suicide, I'd be quite surprised if there weren't loads of studies that indicated that that was the case. However, it's true that I know of none.

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