The Digital Catholic

I've had a post sitting in the draft box for a while on memes, in particular snarky ones.  I've been sitting on it because I'm not super happy with it, and I don't want this to turn into a laundry list of complaints about things I see on the internet (fighting snarky with critical doesn't seem to work so good).  However, Colm Leyne (one of the links over on the right), posted a couple of great thoughts that got my gears turning on it again:

http://colmscommonplace.tumblr.com/post/67189313915/futurechurch

And

http://projectym.com/blog/catholic-jerks-are-just-jerks/

Read them both!  They are nice, simple, and awesome.

I still can't get my other post to work for me, but the idea of not being a jerk in our faith, or in general, is one that I hold dearly, and if I were to sum up my thoughts on things like Catholic memes, it's don't be a jerk online.  That got me thinking more about digital citizenship (something I studied a bit on over the summer at school) and Catholicism.  So, without wasting more words, I present the Gruntled Catholic's guide to Catholic Digital Citizenship

1)  When you evangelize online, do it the same way you would in real life. 

I'm not cool, I don't pretend or try to be, so I'm not going to try and build a cool online persona.  I'm not going to 'take it to the streets' (see, not cool) with my Facebook profile.  I don't go door to door asking people if they've found Christ, so I'm not going to spam Facebook with nonstop posts in the hopes my non-Catholic friends read them and suddenly see the light.

I do tend to straddle a handful of different worlds and am often in fairly in depth conversations with people I'm close to, so I'm going to do that online where I have the opportunity to, and try to raise the level of online discourse.  I'm a decent writer, at least from an academic point of view, a strong systemic thinker, and in general, a big picture guy, so I'm writing a blog where I can do that.  I'm a musician, so I'm going to share music and thoughts on music.  Most of all, I want my faith to be about joy in the real world, so I'm going to try and be joyful online whenever I can (I didn't say I'm good at it, just that it's important to me).  Find the way to take your own self, and build that online so you are true to yourself

2)  You only have one self.  Make sure it's the same person online and offline

I like wandering in comment forums, and there's a phenomenon out there called being a keyboard commando.  People tend to feel power when they write from behind a username, or profile.  They can get preachy, definite, aggressive, and black and white about everything.  I can count the number of people I know in real life who are like that on two hands, but online they are everywhere (myself included sometimes).  If it's not okay to be snarky, condescending, judgmental, or insulting in person, why do we think it's okay online, especially with our faith (see articles re: don't be a jerk).  When we disagree in person, we can do it respectfully, and without resorting to ad hominem attacks or using sarcastic humour to try and humiliate the ones we disagree with, so why do we think it's okay to fire personal attacks or post sarcastic memes about people and ideas when we disagree online?  Ask yourself this:  If I were to do/say this in real life, to someone I loved, would I be confessing it later?  If the answer is yes, then why would you do it online?

3)  You can't leverage relationships you don't have

It's easy to burn bridges online.  It's easy to confuse a Facebook 'friend' with a real one, and cross lines we wouldn't in real life.  I've alienated people online by treating them poorly, in a way only a close friend would usually forgive.  It's powerfully easy to wreck a distant relationship online with a few wrong words.  However, because of the vast amount of things we share online, it's also a tremendously powerful relationship building too.  Before social networking was even a thing, I built a very strong connection to a friend in Texas I'd never actually met in person (linked through a common friend in Calgary).  The conversations we had via email brought us close, and we leaned on each other through some tough times.  With social media, the ability to do that has increased tenfold.  We know how important it is to build relationships when we want to share the Love of Christ, so we owe it ourselves and our faith to be careful, active, and faithful to building strong relationships in the online world.

4)  Be a truth seeker

This one might be a pet peeve of mine, but I have trouble seeing how we can be seen as people who possess the Truth when we can't get our facts straight.  I cringe every time I see a Catholic friend post something that is anti-science, or ignorant of science, spread an internet rumor, or even share a 'Costco is going to give you $450' post on Facebook without fact checking first.   I decided to stop being the fact police online a while ago, because it wasn't exactly uplifting or productive, but seriously, if we are the people who constantly evangelize for a super-vitamin or new diet that will cure everything, posts links to debunked studies that are anti-vaccination, tie ideas we don't agree with or understand to left wing (or right wing, although I don't see that as much) political conspiracies, or share everything that looks like a chain letter, then it's hard to give much weight to anything else we say.  Catholics have a responsibility to be critical thinkers, to use things like the scientific method to expand our knowledge, to know the spirit and letter of the laws of our faith, to trust true expertise, and to seek out dissenting voices to our own thoughts, so that we can reflect on them, grow our faith and wisdom, and the faith and wisdom of others.  Otherwise, if we are 'those people' online (as described above), we are violating the first three things, and not really accomplishing much more than increasing division.

5)  Be a creative generator

The internet is a true marvel of technology.  When you stop to think that we literally have almost the entirety of human knowledge and creativity at our fingertips, on demand, for almost free, it's mind blowing.  There is so much amazing stuff on the internet, like this, or this (or anything else by ZeFrank, sad dog diary will make you laugh out loud!), or this!

So much of the internet is amazing and amusing (every above could probably take you on a multi-hour journey to some branch of the internet you haven't climbed yet) that it's easy to be a consumer.  But we are all so gifted by God, and we are called to share and grow our talents.  The internet has so much awesome culture, and somewhere between 1/6 and 1/7 of the world is Catholic.  We should be contributing a massive amount of awesome to the internet, whether it's academic and wordy (yay me!), artistic and creative, critical and constructive, or just plain fun and funny.  Life is too precious, and your gifts are too awesome to waste too much time and wall space on platitudes and sharing what other people have done (some is good, don't get me wrong).  Share your work on your wall, share your gifts with the internet.

6)  If your faith makes you joyful, tell it to your digital face

I met a nun once who gave me that quip about vocations.  She was addressing the seemingly dour or angry image that a lot of religious have, but I think it's true about our faith all the time.  I don't mean falsely cheerful, I mean genuinely joyful.  Watch this or this and tell me it doesn't make you smile even a little.  We want to be around joyful people, and with the reach of the internet there is so much opportunity to share joy.  Hillaire Belloc said "Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,there’s always laughter and good red wine.  At least I’ve always found it so.  Benedicamus Domino!"  I know I would rather be part of the Church that Belloc describes, than one who's members favor snarky memes over dancing monks!