Fast forward slightly to the next time I checked email, about a half-hour ago; two relevant and related things jumped out at me. One was a new article by the NCR's highly respected Vatican observer, John Allen, on an important side of Benedict XVI that, among many of his important sides, gets routinely neglected or distorted by the media of both the so-called "right" and the so-called "left." Now that I've whetted your appetite, you'll have to read the article to see what it is: click here.
Hand-in-hand with that, I find it significant that, under Benedict's leadership, the Vatican is very proactively forging a presence on both YouTube and Facebook.
The second item was a new post on one of the sites I keep in touch with daily, the Deacon's Bench blog ("where a Roman Catholic Deacon ponders the world"). He cites an article from the Arlington, Virginia, Catholic Herald about "Faith in the Age of Facebook."
We can sometimes lament the passing away of old media -- for better or worse, ink on paper is giving way to the many facets of cyberspace communication -- but the question has to be asked and answered, how can the "new media," even with its forms that develop and mutate almost daily, serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
The answer is not a simple one because the terms of the question itself are not simple.
Spend a little time with the articles I've cited. (Personally, I find reading on the computer screen more conducive to both speed and retention than on paper. I haven't figured out why, but it may be that scrolling actually accomplishes the speed-reading methods I learned in college but never disciplined myself to practice. Also, I find that white or yellow letters on a black background are much easier on the eyes. )
The title I gave this post is, of course, a bit of wordplay. Traditional philosophy and theology have always sought the "middle course" (via media) as the safe and sure navigation between extremes. Today, as in the past, the vessel by which that course could be navigated was the latest in media technology. Don't forget that invention of paper (papyrus) that could be bound in folios rather than rolled up in scrolls, the art of stained glass, and the movable type printing press were all at one time innovative technologies that revolutionized communication and put an end to a previous era.
What do you think?
Besides wondering what you think about the Kindle 2 (I had the same reasons as you for not getting the first one), I wonder if there is not space in our world and in our hearts for both the old and the new. Just as I'd hate to proclaim that stained glass windows can no longer communicate, I would also never state that the "new-fangled con-traptions" are a waste of time and money. I can write perfectly well on a keyboard, but sometimes just like to record lines of poetry on a random scrap of paper (time permitting!). I like CDs and even MP3s, but the analog playback from my old vinyl records of Perotin and Pink Floyd is better. Every medium has its best use!
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