Is a ministry for digital natives conceivable?
We know that teenagers and young adults are intensely involved in the digital world. Their world is a network of images, sounds and interactivity. They are natives of a reality where real and virtual are one and where the imagination speaks a multidimensional language. For them, the Internet and social networks are places of study, research, personal and professional promotion, friendships and entertainment. There are also great challenges in this universe. The digital environment reflects the complex economic, political and social scenarios where poverty, violence, war, indifference towards others, individualism, injustices, lack of work and the climate crisis constitute a threat to the present and the future.
In this context, I prefer to talk about digital inhabitants rather than digital natives. It is true that digital natives grow up with a typically new mindset and behaviour, such as the use of digital language, digital logic, doing multiple things at once, responding emotionally and socially to the speed and instantaneity of the Internet.
But when we talk about ministry, I think the important thing is to start from what the Gospel teaches us: the heartfelt and existential choice of the person of Jesus Christ and his teachings: what the Church proposes to us to be brothers and sisters. In a parish community, for example, people can be involved in the Church’s ministry by linking them to a shared project both affectively and effectively by electing them as members of a community.
A second important aspect of digital evangelisation is to propose concrete actions for teenagers and young adults, so that they can practise Christian life on the basis of what the Church teaches in the field of social morality, for example: concretely live charity with the poorest, the sick, the elderly, get involved in projects to discuss and transform the unjust and anti-life realities that we find everywhere.
For example, when a group of young people gather to pray, sing, play and then post social projects that they carry out, for example for migrants, refugees, the sick, they are evangelising through digital media. Therefore, we communicate starting from experience and testimony. In the digital world, words are not enough, there is an urgency for concrete actions.
How to consider yet people who are part of the so-called digital divide?
As Christians it is also important to remember that when we talk about the digital world we are witnessing a harsh reality: about 3.8 billion people in the world still do not have the internet. The digital divide is a sad reality for many people who do not have access to information and communication via the internet. It is a matter of social justice: the right to communicate is for all human beings.
13. As the world becomes increasingly digital and virtual, we all have a responsibility to explore, with our educators, the guidelines for establishing a healthy relationship between people and technology, with a particular focus on care for creation, dignity and rights, the ethics of economics and politics. The objective is to safeguard our Common Home through fraternity, as proposed by Pope Francis starting from the Encyclical “Laudato Si'” [1] and the “Global Educational Pact” [2].
As human beings, regardless of our culture or language or age, we are naturally inclined to trust communicators who speak from the heart, who connect their words and feelings in a coherent way, who are actually present to us, who are not afraid to develop real and true relationships. How can this be applied?
With the Internet, our relationships have become a real tower of Babel. We know that the networks are places of wheat and chaff that grow together. We cannot have an innocent vision of the digital world. In addition, in the digital world we have all the challenges of emotional and social violence, incitement to hate speech, the ideology of unbridled consumerism, all kinds of ideology. Therefore, to relate in the digital world, we need some clear principles.
I think the starting point to have good relationships through the internet and social networks is to communicate with people who know each other, who have common values and projects, who have an ethic and commit to each other. That is, first the concrete experience, lived, tried, with the people who will then continue these relationships through digital processes.
In some cases, the opposite may also work. That is, starting a group with people who do not know each other. But there is the risk to anonymity, personal security and privacy. It is always risky when a person joins any group and starts talking about themselves, their private things, without knowing how this information will be used.
You stated in an article that you recently wrote “that art is the heart of communication”. What does that mean?
Yes, it is true. We remember that our father and founder Don Bosco played the piano, sang, and used the theatre beautifully to educate.
One way to create a communication network among young people, for example, could be art. I believe very much in the inspiring power and ability of art to bring people together, to create bonds, to involve them in authentic and real projects.
Art is the heart of human communication. When we talk about art, we refer to music, dance, literature, theatre, painting and numerous other artistic manifestations. In a sense, all people, regardless of their economic, social, cultural condition, etc., experience artistic reality.
All art forms are a visual language of the individual’s feelings and desires. Art also allows everyone to define or conquer their social and political space within the human community. Through the diversity of its languages, art makes it possible for the human being to manifest their emotions, values, faith and vision of the world.
In my opinion, approaching young people to make them learn some types of art and sports is a creative way of educating to live digitally.
What should a Salesian school look like in the digital context?
The Salesian school is a privileged and special place to educate children and young people, in any cultural reality in the world. First of all, there are the values of the preventive system, the value of love, friendship, dialogue, reflection, the importance of God and religiosity, with its symbols, its rites and its experiences of prayer, liturgy, song and service for others. Salesian education has an educational environment that allows movement, sport, music, dance, friendly contact with educators, educational and cultural experiences.
The Salesian school, starting from this Christian and human base, can and must develop digital education, reflecting with young people on how the world works and digital logic. And in this universe understand how to live in a balanced and free way as a person and as a Christian within cyberspace, the infosphere, taking care of oneself within the psychosphere.
Can you give us an example of this?
Sure. For example, a young person who understands how digital logic works will be able to look for moments to learn a musical instrument, dance, play sports, cook, do physical activities, look for moments of contact with nature, spend time with people, look people straight in the eye. Why? Because they know that the time spent with digital logic does not offer all this. So, this young person is learning that natural time must be experienced at its own pace, in its gratuitousness, in its beauty. This does not mean splitting with the logic of digital time, but knowing how to place oneself educationally within the infosphere and cyberspace.
Young people who know how to place themselves critically within the digital universe become more creative. They will become freer to learn, to reflect, to think more meaningfully and deeply by making better choices for their lives, for their physical and emotional health, thus developing their spirituality to use the digital world in a creative, healthy and entrepreneurial way.
