Social Media

I read a good post on the idea of parish online communities yesterday, over on Catholic Tech Talk (great site!), titled: Parish Online Communities: Private vs. Public. In it, Ryan Foley speaks about the value of parishes having private communities incorporated with their websites and parish member management systems.

I wrote, in response:

Coming from the perspective of having worked on a similar kind of project diocesan-wide (for priests), I have to say that creating an insular (parish-level, or even diocese-level) social networks is a serious undertaking.

We've tried twice to create online spaces (private social networks) for a particular population of the diocese, but both times, after an initial push by a few people that were forced into being leaders, the experiment failed. The reasons were many, but mostly boiled down to:

1. Not enough buy-in to make it worthwhile (the people who were most active were those who were already using other communications channels to keep in touch anyways).
2. Not enough 'space' (a few people posted a lot, causing many of the priests who would've otherwise been interested to stay out of the discussion).
3. The 'just another network' syndrome; for many of the people who seemed they would be the target demographic, they quickly responded with complaints that we were simply asking them to manage yet another profile/persona, and one which didn't really provide them added value (compared to the small communities they were already in on Facebook, Twitter, and in real life).

This article gives us reason for pause:

What do college students in China, Chile, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Uganda have in common? According to a new global study by the University of Maryland's International Center for Media & the Public Affairs (ICMPA) and the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, they're all addicted to media. That might not seem like news—after all, there's a reason the term "CrackBerry" came into being—but just how severely students are addicted is startling, and has real implications for our schools where Skyping, blogging, learning-via-gaming technology is increasingly the norm.

How do we engage an audience that is quite immersed in the world of technology, social media, etc., and bring them into a real, physical and emotional relationship with other humans, and even more importantly, the real and life-giving presence of Jesus Christ?

Just as in all things in our current state of being, we should be "in the world, but not of it."

Another side note: If college students are so addicted to media, I can guarantee that many, if not most, have had a large amount of exposure to pornography. This bodes ill for our cultural values in the coming years.

The Pope delivered his message on the 45th World Day of Communications. Very apropos:

It is an ever more commonly held opinion that, just as the Industrial Revolution in its day brought about a profound transformation in society by the modifications it introduced into the cycles of production and the lives of workers, so today the radical changes taking place in communications are guiding significant cultural and social developments. The new technologies are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself, so much so that it could be said that we are living through a period of vast cultural transformation. This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship.

The Pope has dealt with the Internet, social networking, and mass communications many times in the past. He is always quick to highlight the transformational power new technologies offer—in this case, he compares our communications revolution to the Industrial Revolution.

He is, as always, quick to warn of the dangers involved in this technology's misuse, and reminds us that, as with every tool humanity uses, this tool must, too, be placed at the service of good, rather than evil... and it is up to you and I to do this!

As with every other fruit of human ingenuity, the new communications technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity. If used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.

The Pope warns that online communication, particularly, I think, in the form of status-posting and blogging, "can become a form of self-indulgence." He also warns of the dangers of a digital lifestyle, including "enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence," "excessive exposure to the virtual world," and "constructing an artificial public profile for oneself."

The pope continues to remind us that "virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives."

The whole message is incredibly succinct and important for anyone working online to read. Please read it in full—and post your thoughts here!

Further Reading for Thought/Discussion:

• I'm Obsessed with the Obsession
• New Book on "The Church and New Media" 
• Social networking sites are a 'modern form of madness'
• Getting Intimate on Facebook
• Pope Benedict's 43rd World Communications Day Message (2009)
• The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
• How the Internet Gets Inside Us
• Children are happier with their virtual lives and not the real world
• Chris Bowler: "I struggle greatly to focus on one task for any length."

I will be posting more about the themes the Pope highlights in this message in the coming months. I think these issues have been on many people's minds (mine included), with much more frequency, now that social media has begun to truly pervade people's entire lives.

My prediction: 2011 will be the year of Social Media for the Catholic Church... at least in the United States.

Let's look at some of the latest developments:

• One of the topics for next week's Fall Assembly of the USCCB is "Integrating new media into diocesan communication structures."
• Blogs, Twitter, and other social media outlets are becoming less derivative and dependent on mainstream media, according to a recent Pew report.
• The USCCB recently released a synthesis of social media best practices in its Social Media Guidelines.
• Catholic websites are slowly beginning to integrate more into social media. Catholic news sites are leading the charge, along with high profile bloggers. Dioceses and larger parishes are joining the parade, albeit slowly and begrudgingly at times.

Sadly, there are still very few diocesan-level social media initiatives, but I think this will quickly change in the coming year. There are also relatively few bishops represented online—this is something that may take longer to happen, but it will happen.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the USCCB's discussions on social media.

This morning I noticed the following interesting address from Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, to of all places, the 6th general congregation of the synod on the Middle East, which is ongoing now. 

Digital culture is present in the various nations of the Middle East and in local Churches through television, radio, cinema, websites and social networks. All this media space has an impact on daily life. ... As indicated in the 'Relatio', it is necessary to train pastoral workers as well as lay people and journalists, but not only them. The formation of seminarians is also a vital issue, not so much as regards technology which they handle better than we do, but as regards communication, which is communion in this rapidly developing culture.

Without priests - and without bishops - who understand modern culture, the communication gap will persist, something which will not favour the transmission of the faith to the young in the Church. It is not sufficient to build websites: what is needed is a presence that is able to create authentic means of communication, that opens 'places' where people can gather to bear witness to their faith and to their respect for others.

Obviously this does not mean ignoring personal encounter and physical community life. These are not alternative actions: they are both indispensable for extending God's kingdom.

Well said, and a good exhortation/confirmation for us.

From the CNS:

Pope Benedict XVI unveiled a new Vatican agency to promote "new evangelization" and assigned it the task of combating the "de-Christianization" of countries that were first evangelized centuries ago.

...and of special interest to Open Source Catholic readers, it looks like this agency will work especially through the means of modern communications media, such as social networking:

The archbishop said the council would work closely with modern communications media -- an explicit request of the pope -- and that the council's staff would operate in several languages.

The Pope's apostolic letter went on to speak of the importance of religious values and family in society, and mourns the loss of community and the fact that many live in an "interior desert" as a result of relativism and modernism.

Very poignant; we'll see what comes of this!

From an article posted to Today's Parish, from @jongivens:

A few years ago, it would have been considered “cutting edge” for a parish to be using social media, but now everyone is doing it. So the question isn’t should parishes be using social media, but how can they use it with intentionality to support their ministry goals. Before a minister or parish committee member even sets up a Twitter account, Facebook page, or blog for the parish, they need to discern what it is they are trying to accomplish with these new media tools.

In “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word,” Pope Benedict XVI outlined the importance of social media and the need for priests and lay people to adapt to this cultural shift. Using excerpts from the pope’s letter as a framework, this article lays out three basic steps for creating a social media strategy for a parish or ministry organization:

• Define your goals
• Meet your audience
• Build your content

Nothing we haven't heard before, but a good consideration for every parish and Catholic organization: what is your strategy for online communications (even more broad than simply social media use... you should also consider traditional email marketing, and website content management)?

Of course, I must contest the point that 'everybody's doing it' when it comes to parishes and social media... fully 66% of churches don't use social media—and that's all Christians. Catholic churches, I'm sure, would see a smaller minority using social media.

I think the battle still needs to be fought over whether or not a parish should be using social media... not how they should use it (just yet ;-). Many priests and parish councils simply see no need for it at this point.

There's a new Twitter hashtag around these parts, for social media use. This hashtag came about as a response to those who were wondering where to move after the bulk of the #cnmc (Catholic New Media Celebration) tweets were becoming less and less about the Celebration, and more and more about general Catholic social media practices and discussion.

Therefore, a general consensus was made that #cathmedia would be a good hashtag for Tweets having to do with Catholic media, and social media initiatives.

Some other hashtags I've used:

• #catholic - for all things Catholic
• #vocation - for vocations-related tweets
• #pope - for all things Pope Benedict XVI

Are there any other commonly-held Catholic Twitter hashtags everyone should be aware of? Currently, it seems the common practice to put a string of hashtags together for certain topics, like #Catholic #Prayer #Faith... while this is okay to do, it's best if there are some more specific hashtags which people can add to saved searches (like #cathmedia).