Love your Digital Neighbor

When reading almost any Catholic text, from the Gospels to the Liturgy of the Hours. The phrase ‘Love thy Neighbr’ will pop up multiple times. But who is this ‘Neighbor’? In the Gospels and in the Divine Office and other prayer books. The phrase ‘Love Thy Neighbor as yourself’ appears multiple times. It can be interpreted as treating yourself well and treating your neighbors with the same level of care. However, the term Neighbor may need to be re-interpreted for contemporary times.

When The Bible was written, people lived in close and agrarian communities. They would live a few meters from their neighbors, and everyone would be involved in common agricultural projects to grow and produce food for the families in their communities, and they were very close knit. This would usually revolve either around a monastery or a Royal Court. Even up to the time of Saint Francis, there were small villages and fiefdoms, which usually led to a lot of little wars. However, despite conflicts everyone knew each other, and everyone knew that St. Francis was rebuilding the church.

As time progressed, there were Industrial Revolutions, and the world became a ‘smaller place’ people became more distanced. Natural resources required mining and multinationals required workers, so people started travelling for work and settling in the most convenient location. This is an international phenomenon with people travelling across the world for economic reasons.

The effect of this ‘smaller world’ is that a lot of people don’t know who their neighbors are. Some people live next to empty houses, others next to a revolving door of students every semester, and what about those who are living in flats or apartments? An apartment dweller could be passing by five or six doors of other occupants, with no idea who they are, and no communal social space in the building. In the old times your neighbor may have come to your door looking for a cup of sugar or some milk. What would happen if that occurred today? It would probably involve someone calling law enforcement.

In the internet age we have communities online. Your Neighbor could now be interpreted as someone you are in the same group as online, or someone in your WhatsApp or Snapchat messages. There are also social areas within online games such as Roblox. These are often the only people netizens talk to outside of the workplace or school. Friendship groups are being formed online. Your Neighbors are now Digital Neighbors, but the same advice still applies.

When dealing with people online, or your digital neighbors, they should be treated as people, even though their online avatar (character they use to represent themselves) may not be. The Catholic ideas of respecting yourself and respecting your neighbors still apply in a digital space.

There has been a lot of change in society and communities since the days the Testaments were written. It has gone from small dependent agrarian groups to international distanced individuals. The term ‘Neighbor’ should be inclusive of digital spaces and friendship groups as this may be the only community interaction individuals have access to, and the only opportunity some Catholics may have to treat their neighbor as themselves.