Archbishop Nichols

Archbishop Vincent Nichols has voiced his opinion on social media and it is what you would call harsh. Nichols believes social media such as Bebo, Facebook and Twitter is “dehumanizing” community and social lives, even sometime leading to teenage suicides. In some ways this is true, as instead of face to face conversations, people stare at a pixilated screen, communicating with a monitor. But in other ways, social media helps instead of hinders society as it can connect people on opposite sides of the world, bringing people together, and sometimes even start movements that change the world.
In a world of status updates and sharing photos, it is very easy to see how much the world has changed. A like on Facebook is the equivalent to a pat on the back and a “retweet” is almost better than a high five. Archbishop Nichols believes the social media craze is leading to too many nights at home in front of the computer, creating a world of “transient relationships”. This basically means that if their computers, phones, and iPads were to crash, many teenagers would be lost in what to do with their lives. They would have no means of communication and no social life. In Nichols’ eyes this would even lead a majority of teen suicides. Continuing on that dark note, the availability of the online human database known as Facebook has made the “crush stalk” much easier because you can “silently accrue massive amounts of information” (McHugh, Pg 1) about a person quite easily. This is where I agree with Archbishop Nichols, he has brought up valid points that are hard to argue. Although there is an obvious downside to social media, this new abundance of technology has also allowed for many great new opportunities for society to move forward.
Social media had truly changed the world, sites such as avaaz.org allow people from all across the world to virally come together and spark action. Sites such as this not only help spread the word about tragedies around the globe, but also...