Look Up: The Government and the Vatican on Social Media
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June 1, 2023For those of us who lived prior to smart phones and “social media” the sight of dozens of people in public spaces these days, like the mall, the DMV, or a busy restaurant is truly a sad sight to behold. People, regardless of being alone or in groups, can be seen with their heads bowed down and eyes fixed on little screens. Even small children are being trained in the ways of the smart phone and the instant entertainment on those seemily indestructible tot-tablets.
Almost as if in collaboration with one another, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and the Vatican’s Department of Communication, formally known as a the Dicastery for Communication, released documents on social media, with the prior focusing on the harmful effects of it on children and teens.
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued Social Media and Youth Mental Health, an advisory on May 23. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.
“At this time, we do not yet have enough evidence to determine if social media is sufficiently safe for children and adolescents,” Murthy’s report read. “We must acknowledge the growing body of research about potential harms, associated with social media use, and urgently take action to minimize harm and safeguard children’s and adolescents’ mental health and well-being during critical stages of development,” Murthy wrote.
The document acknowledges the many complex factors that are in play when speaking about this topic. Factors including the amount of time children and teens spend on-line, the type of content they are exposed to, and the degree to which social media disrupts activities essential for children’s health like sleep and exercise.
“Brain development is a critical factor to consider when assessing the risk for harm. Adolescents, ages 10 to 19, are undergoing a highly sensitive period of brain development. This is a period when risk-taking behaviors reach their peak… and when mental health challenges such as depression typically emerge,” read the report. “Furthermore, in early adolescence, when identities and sense of self-worth are forming, brain development is especially susceptible to social pressures, peer opinions, and peer comparison,” Murthy wrote.
According to researchers large amounts of time spent on social media is linked to changes in a child’s developing brain, in the amygdala, which regulates emotional learning and behavior, and in the prefrontal cortex necessary for development of impulse control, emotional regulation, and moderating social behavior. This, they say, leads children and teens to experience heightened emotional sensitivity.
“Adolescent social media use is predictive of a subsequent decrease in life satisfaction for certain developmental stages including for girls 11–13 years old and boys 14–15 years old. Because adolescence is a vulnerable period of brain development, social media exposure during this period warrants additional scrutiny,” stated the advisory.
While the report noted some positive aspects of social media use for teens, including connection to peers and community, the negatives outweigh the positives. In fact, even one of the “benefits” noted in the Surgeon General’s report really isn’t perceived as one at all for Catholic and Christian families. The report notes social media is where children and teens who are unsure about their sexuality or gender identity go, to find like-minded children, teens, and adults. This works to perpetuate and intensify those feelings and is not at all beneficial.
The SG’s advisory goes on, explaining that social media exposes children and teens to extremely inappropriate and graphic content that they aren’t mentally or emotionally equipped to handle. “Content, including live depictions of self-harm, continues to be easily and widely accessible by children and adolescents…In certain tragic cases, childhood deaths have been linked to suicide- and self-harm-related content and risk-taking challenges on social media platforms. This content may be especially risky for children and adolescents who are already experiencing mental health difficulties,” it notes. Social media has also been found to perpetuate feelings of body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, social comparison, low self-esteem and depression among children and teens.
Ironically, while Murthy’s concern about the harmful effects of social media on children and teens, may be sincere (there’s no reason to think otherwise), his concern for them doesn’t extend to the gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers or chemical castrations these very same children are demanding, and their parents are being emotionally blackmailed into accepting. All this during “this vulnerable period of brain development,” for children.
Dr. Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Vatican’s Department of Communication issued his Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media, on May 28. Ruffini noted that many Christians are asking for guidance in ways to navigate the digital culture and social media because it has become such a significant part of young people’s lives.
“Even Pope Francis has acknowledged that the digital world is ‘indistinguishable from the sphere of everyday life,’ and it is changing the way humanity accumulates knowledge, disseminates information, and develops relationships,” Ruffini said.
While more abstract and historical in its presentation, Dr. Ruffini’s reflection acknowledged the reality social media use is, “having a profound impact on our faith communities and our individual spiritual journeys.” The constant mental noise created by non-stop social media consumption is creating a society of individuals who can’t find the silence necessary to nurture an internal, spiritual life.
“We must be more mindful in this regard. Without silence and the space to think slowly, deeply, and purposefully, we risk losing not only cognitive capacities but also the depth of our interactions, both human and divine. The space for deliberate listening, attentiveness, and discernment of the truth is becoming rare,” Ruffini’s reflection notes.
Silence isn’t the only casualty in our hyperactive social media world. Our ability to discern fact from fiction is a risk. “It is increasingly difficult to verify sources and the accuracy of the information that circulates digitally. Content overload is solved by artificial intelligence algorithms that constantly determine what to show us based on factors that we hardly perceive or realize,” he says.
While Dr. Ruffini is not addressing parents specifically, it’s not difficult to connect the dots to realize these algorithms are also targeting our children and teens with content and sending them to places parents don’t want them to go, including ideological silos. These ideological bubbles are reducing if not totally eliminating interaction between people of different viewpoints which foments hatred of the other.
“In this way, almost imperceptibly, we grow incapable of feeling compassion for others, as if their sufferings were their own responsibility and none of our business.” The casualty here is our ability to listen and therefore empathize with others.
“Listening is a fundamental skill that allows us to enter into relationships with others… (it) emerges from silence and is fundamental for caring for others,” he writes. Ruffini concludes that nowadays, people have a great opportunity to be Good Samaritans to one another in our modern-day digital super highways.
