The Religion of Social Networking and Technology Demi-Gods

Pope Benedict may be 83 but he has to keep up with the technology of today. After all, millions of Catholics around the world look up to him and the Vatican for direction on a range of subjects, including, as it turns out, technology and the internet. Last month, the pontiff, speaking on the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications, said that social networking offers great opportunity for connection with fellow human beings. The Pope, who does not have a Facebook account and handwrites his speech has a whole team of presumably tech-savvy officials briefing him about the issue. For he goes on to say, that the opportunity for connections comes with risks. ”It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives.“

Is Zuckerberg listening? While the Pope did not explicitly mention Facebook, he frequently used, what have now become part social-networking phrases – share, friends and profile. Words that have all derived their new meanings from Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. How much will Pope Benedict’s blessing matter to Catholics? For one, devout followers of the religion, who were uncertain of the Church’s stand now know that they can log onto Facebook.com and create an account or can continue to enjoy the social networking site without feeling guilty about doing something un-Christian. While that may mean hundreds of thousands of new Facebook members, what may this mean, personally, to Zuckerberg?

Most people know of the world’s most famous, youngest billionaire’s Jewish roots. Although, not many may have delved deeper to know that Mark thinks of himself as an atheist, and describes himself as one on his personal Facebook page. Our obvious guess is that Pope Benedicts pronouncement will mean nothing, on a personal level to the individual, whose business stands to gain the most from it. While Mark frequently shares space with other scientists and academics as illustrious global atheists, not all tech geniuses are so.

Steve Jobs’ biography, serendipitously for the publishers and the author, released around the time of his death. It has revealed plenty about the IT maverick’s religious beliefs.  Given Steve Jobs widely-known views on alternate medicine and vegetarianism – he’s a pescatarian (eats fish), because many believe that fishes are not sentient beings – it was not a surprise, when disclosed in the book, that he had a strong leaning towards Eastern spiritual beliefs.  In the 60s, the Beatles influenced close-to an entire generation of Western youngsters to travel to India. Steve Jobs was one of them. Not only did Jobs name what was to become the world’s most famous tech company after the Beatles’ record label, but he also travelled to the East, like the Beatles, and returned a changed man, in his religious beliefs.

Steve learnt about Zen Buddhism in Asia, the place of its origin, and continued to believe in it till recently. In fact, Walter Isaacson, Steve’s biographer, says that the iPods and Apple products most of us carry, feature a little bit of Steve’s ‘Zenness’ in them. Simple, minimal, sleek define Apple. What does it sound like? Zen, of course. 

Back to Pope Benedict’s talk, which also, may have alluded to Twitter. “In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated,” he said. So the tech team at Vatican has covered fair ground as far as social networking is concerned.  While the Church may have made positive statements about social media, it did not necessarily extol its virtues. But it’s a big leap of faith, in a manner of speaking, as far as social networking is concerned, for most Christian groups have demonized the online trend. In fact, even after the Pope had made this speech, some Parishes were denouncing Facebook and calling it the ‘Opposite of Christian Culture’.

While nobody knows for sure , even now, if Google’s social strategy is really going to take-off, despite reports of ‘exponential growth’, it may be worthy to note Larry and Sergey’s views on the whole religious issue as well. Given how religion touches every area of our lives, from politics to economics, it was only a matter of time, before tech gurus were probed for their religious views. And as far as we can see, they’re on the opposite side of extreme, most seem to be atheist or simply, spiritual, like Jobs, and not religious.

Could it be that those who think of Social Networking as anti-Christian, may be anti-Semitic? (There’s no need to go up-in-arms here, we’re just theorizing).  Incidentally, the closest competitor to Facebook – from miles away – Google+ is being driven by Larry Page, another tech guru with Jewish heritage. Although, he has stated that the religion in his home, was mostly, science. Since, both his parents were scientific academics. Sergey Brin, Larry’s colleague is also Jewish, and, in fact, the Brin family escaped anti-Semitism in Russia and moved to the States with the help of a Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. In 2009, Sergey donated $1 million dollars to the organization, because of their help to his family.

For now, Catholics know that the Pope ‘okays’ social networking. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI’s pulse on what most people were feeling, was expressed, when he described the chaos most were feeling in the world and the impact it had in our digital lives. He said that the endless conversations online demonstrated our restlessness and how we were “ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import that can offer meaning and hope to their lives.”

I am ending with an evocative comment that will hopefully, have some effect on most online users, Catholic or not. Here’s to those of us who’re connected 24×7, we should ask ourselves, the pontiff says, ”Who is my ‘neighbor’ in this new world?” and avoid the danger of always being available online but being “less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life.”