We are all connected: but do we really communicate?

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

We all know the new applications and the functions of information technology such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, chat and so on... Above all it’s young people who are familiar with digital devices and master them. But we ask ourselves: do they really favour communication? It is true that the social network helps anyone in any place of the world to achieve knowledge and that it allows us to stay connected with each other no matter where you are. The “digital natives”, generally identified as the millennial generation, have spent nearly their entire lives surrounded by computers, digital devices and the world of social. Mobile phones became “smart” phones that incorporate more and more features and they are considered computers. But do digital devices really favour communication? On the street, at the bar, even behind the wheel you see people with mobile phones in hand. Sometimes facing each other looking at a screen and typing something while ignoring each other. Technology is certainly a powerful communications media but social media can have negative effects on socialising. The English word “communication” derives from the Latin word “communicare” which means to participate or to transmit. The word “Communicare” is derived from the root…