Friday, January 23, 2009

Papal double-take (updated)

The Huffington Post today has two interesting articles on the Pope and the internet. In the first, the Pope cautions against the overuse of social networking sites, like Facebook and Myspace:
Benedict welcomes as a "gift" new technologies such as social networking sites, saying they respond to the "fundamental desire" of people to communicate.

But he also warns that "obsessive" virtual socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already marginalized.

Yet, the Vatican just announced that it has launched a YouTube channel, so you can watch HD videos of important papal ceremonies:

... the pope fully approved of the Vatican YouTube channel, saying Benedict was "a man of dialogue" who wanted to engage with people wherever they were.
Kinda like the internet ... and social networking sites.

So the Pope, a "man of dialogue" with the "fundamental desire" to communicate, starts a website to communicate with people where they are - in effect "virtually socializing." We should hope that the Vatican doesn't become "obsessive" about updating their website or they could potentially "exclude those already marginalized."

Or did I get that wrong. I'm a little confused.

Update: Obviously, this is the type of story the Pope is talking about: A British man murders his wife over her "single" relationship status on Facebook. (h/t Huffington Post)

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