""The comments that even 20 years ago took months to reach the far corners of the Earth, now, as we know, take seconds. The best answer to a complex issue is not always given in 140 characters. The Church of this century must be a generous Church because of that communications revolution, because of technology, because we are face to face with everyone everywhere always, in a way we never have been in history," said the Archbishop.
MIT Technology Review found angry tweets are far more likely to be retweeted, or be the subject of angry responses, up to three degrees away from the original user. The study concluded that
Twitter is "steadily making us less happy and more angry."
The journal Science published an overview of studies about new media on our cognitive abilities. They found that while the
Internet can increase "visual literacy skills," that increase appears to be offset with
decreases in other areas, such as
critical thinking, inductive problem solving, imagination, and "abstract vocabulary."
"Social media can be so dangerous because it does emotionally and cognitively influence users," says Dr. William Adkers, a professor of communications.
The archbishop encourages internet users to "spread joy."
The Catholic Church encourages Christian internet users to use social media to spread joy and the gospel of Christ instead of negativity.
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