About three hundred Jesuit men in formation from the United States of America, Canada and Haiti gathered at California’s Loyola Marymount University for five days in June 2015 to discuss the Jesuit Global Mission in a Digital Age. Under that succinct title, the conference featured talks by experts like  America Magazine’s Matt Malone, SJ,  the Vatican’s assistant spokesperson, Tom Rosica, OSB, and the former international director for the Jesuit Refugee Service, Peter Balleis, SJ.

As I listened to their well-written, and at times entertaining talks, I would  have been unable to tell you what the specific goal of the conference was. I did not get the sense that the speakers were tackling a particular question. I did not come away from the talks saying to myself, ‘this is what I am being invited to do next semester’ because all the speakers seemed to be getting at something quite different.

Here are some examples. Malone gave us a vision for using media. Jesus Christ, as “God’s  Incarnate Word,” is a medium. How, then, do Jesuits incarnate their evangelical missions with an audacious creativity? Then, Rosica told us tales of exigent news reporters rapaciously scratching and clawing their way towards him for the “official opinion” on the election of Francis who, at the time, had been history’s first Jesuit Pope for nearly an entire hour. Rosica had to figure out quickly what to tell them. Finally, one of Balleis’ focuses was an academic program started as a JRS initiative by, among others, Regis University in Denver, Colorado. It provides online undergraduate courses to students who cannot afford them where they live, or who do not have access to that level of education because they are refugees, or they are subject to low calibre pedagogy. Enrolled as virtual students of Regis, they are given the opportunity to graduate from a respected institution.

To be sure, all the talks had something to do either with the purposes of media, or their ministerial importance, which is all well and good, but what does that mean for me as a Jesuit in formation? I already know that the media can be used in ministry, and that they are important, so what?

Actually, I suspect all the speakers were given a carte blanche to talk engagingly about their experiences of using media. How, then, do I use media in my ministry as an M.Div. student at Regis College, Toronto? Mainly, I use the internet to research for my essays. Yet, sometimes I log onto Facebook and rarely post something, or browse through what others have posted. Although I am not very active on it – I was quite okay when I abandoned my account for a year – how can it be used for ministry?

It is a great opportunity to chat with and to keep abreast of the lives of one’s friends, especially if they live abroad. In addition, through the “chat” feature, one could have evocative discussions (which, alas, sometimes turn sour), and also explore people’s stories to sympathize with them and help them in whichever way seems appropriate. Certainly, that qualifies as mission and ministry.

Why, then, did I abandon my account for a year? I finally decided to do so when I read a newspaper article that accused the government of using Facebook to invade people’s private lives and keep tabs on them, which sounded very 1984. I did not want my privacy invaded. Plus, over a period of years, I discovered that many of my “friends” did not have time to chat. Indeed, I myself often could not afford it.

Moreover, in many cases, “Facebook friendship” turned out to be quite a watered down and vapid thing. To be friends with someone meant that I, or they, had clicked the “add friend” button. I have over three hundred such friends, and I have not had contact with most of them in nearly ten years. I might have sent them a terse birthday greeting whenever I happened to notice it was their birthday. They might have gone through the hassle of responding with a “like”, and that is the extent of our friendship. Thus, many types of social media are chimeric imitations of human interaction. 

Is Facebook, then, to be blamed for that? I don’t think so. Rather, it is an invitation to review our understanding of social media. On the one hand, there is a certain guilt involved in their use because they are perceived as distractions. If one is on Facebook, then one is wasting time that could have been spent doing something productive. As a result, there are people who claim to be unable to afford the luxury of interacting on it, or of meaning friendships to be more than just a click.

On the other hand, there is the opposite extreme. Some of the retired or jobless are active on it twentyfourseven to cure the doleful torpidity of each day. They rampantly post their thoughts and their most trivial goings on, they expatiate responses to posts, and they chat with every poor soul who happens to be on line. I know people who tell me that they are “superactive”, and I find them on it whenever I log in.

The main temptations are to be connected all the time, or to totally steer clear of it, or to let one’s activities devolve into out-of-place and eviscerating polemics, and cyber bullying. Therefore, a “review of understanding” would involve approaching social media as opportunities to listen to people’s stories, and to cultivate friendships. That might even take the form of spiritual companionship. That is not a distraction, but a mission and a ministry we are all invited to. I now understand one of the goals of the conference as encouraging Jesuits in formation to work together to bring about as a ministerial priority this change in attitude.