The Globalization of Superficiality
Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, spoke to Belgian Jesuits in September 2010 about a “globalization of superficiality,” a result of a surfeit of information. He says:
“We have more information than ever, but less ability to think, to digest it all. We move on feelings, information that is first come and first serve. Even if the news is very biased, we don’t have the ability to confirm it as objectively true, We don’t take the time to study and confirm this since the time frame is instantaneous. This is happening in the Church as well. “
What Fr. Nicolás refers to is how we perceive the world more and more through the lens of information about the world on the internet that is parsed according to multiple perspectives that run the gamut of the spectrum from very conservative to very liberal, and many points in between. Our way of looking at the world thus remains superficial.
This plays out in something Fr. Robert Schreiter spoke of at a gathering of leadership of the religious orders of men in the USA:
“The other effect of globalization to which I wish to call attention is how globalization can disunite society. The technical term for this is “hyperdifferentiation.” What this means is that as more and more options become available to a significant sector of society, people who have access them will choose and build a “niche” for themselves with other like-minded people. This results in people insulating themselves from the pluralism that marks societies such as ours, and heightens the possibility of creating units in society that do not communicate with one another. On a more lethal level, people living in such hyperdifferentiated societies will get their information from sources with which they already agree or pursue politics that suit only their immediate short-term needs. In other words, even as society becomes more diverse, people who are affected by hyperdifferentiation will become less able to adapt to the society around them. The widespread polarization we experience in politics and in religion in this country is one of the consequences of these social formations.
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Here is a message from the Pope along the same lines:
We need, for example, to recover a certain sense of deliberateness and calm. This calls for time and the ability to be silent and to listen. We need also to be patient if we want to understand those who are different from us. People only express themselves fully when they are not merely tolerated, but know that they are truly accepted. If we are genuinely attentive in listening to others, we will learn to look at the world with different eyes and come to appreciate the richness of human experience as manifested in different cultures and traditions. We will also learn to appreciate more fully the important values inspired by Christianity, such as the vision of the human person, the nature of marriage and the family, the proper distinction between the religious and political spheres, the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, and many others.
In a nod to the increasingly fragmented niche media markets, Francis called on media consumers not to "barricade themselves behind sources of information which only confirm their own wishes and ideas, or political and economic interests."
And though the pope argued that Catholics should see the media as a way to communicate Christian values, he cautioned against "bombarding people with religious messages" and instead urged his followers to reach out to people in a spirit of dialogue.
Read his whole message here.