Digital Ministries and Keyboard Warriors

It is no secret that social media apps have grown in popularity, even to the point where some Orders have started using them for evangelization. However, with all the other content on these networks, well intentioned messages may be at risk of corruption.

Scrolling through TikTok and other social media apps, viewers are overwhelmed with the usual content, dance moves, cooking, activism, opinions, usually interlaced with subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) product placement. But what happens when the theme is Catholicism?

On the face of it, the idea of Digital Ministries seems harmless enough. There are some nice videos of verses from Psalms encouraging viewers to ‘stay strong’ and ‘keep their faith’ these are accompanied by nice choir music in the background and a strong voiced narrator. Then there are other clips of Large Religious Processions in Europe and even Rosary Processions in Ireland. So far, so good. However, there are other videos that appear to trivialize the faith. For example, a video with a member of an Order pacing up and down saying ‘it’s ok, it’s ok’ with the text ‘when your hand accidentally brushes a parishioner’s tongue during communion’ While these things may happen, it makes a mockery of the whole Sacrament. Instead of focusing on the miracle of Communion and the Eucharist, the protagonist seems distracted with social perceptions.

The Religious video creator can’t be blamed entirely for this, these networks have an insidious way of turning viewers into creators. The content is aimed at younger viewers, so the posts must be short and punchy. However, if a teen sees a religious figure making fun of or joking about Sacraments, it undermines their level of Contemplation of the Eucharist. Or to put it another way, when walking up to receive Holy Communion, will they be thinking of the Miracle of Transubstantiation or the funny video online?

There are also Keyboard Warriors, these are Catholics who fight against criticism online. It is great to see followers defending their faith, however, as they say ‘the devil is in the details’ When criticizing a post, creators often use a split screen, they show the misinformation on the left and their response on the right. But this is just spreading misinformation. It draws views to the original post.

Even if all the comments and reactions to the original user’s post are critical, they will still benefit. Social media doesn’t care why people are looking at a user’s post, they just care that users are generating lots of views. Attention for a post contributes to the network figures and the higher the figures, the more attractive they are to advertisers. All the creators know this and sometimes they will deliberately post disinformation and misinformation to trigger Catholics online so they will get responses and a boost to their post engagements (e.g. Comments, responses, dislikes). It’s a form of trolling. If someone comes across misinformation, they should just report it and not respond. Or as internet safety gurus say, ‘Don’t feed the Trolls!’

Social media has a lot of potential for Evangelization. However, instead of genuflecting to the populist marketing methods and network’s suggestions for creators, maybe we should only post prayers on social media. It highlights the life of discipline and devotion and makes a very strong statement that is difficult to criticize or deny.