What Pope Francis taught me about social media and getting along
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
I’ve been reluctant to jump into the fray.
The more I work in digital media the more dismayed I become at the cacophony. It’s wonderful that we’re all media producers now, but it’s also terribly loud and senseless and incessant. Professional content producers are encouraged to build a brand (how’s that for a media sentence?), but brands are vulnerable to tastes, whereas facts stand better with a reporter in the background.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]With his quiet manner and his deliberate delivery the Pope forced all of us to pause in order to understand.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]But, what if facts were a brand?
Pope Francis spoke before a joint session of congress today, his voice soft and deliberate, not what you’d expect from the central podium of the world’s most powerful deliberative body. And it didn’t take long for the opinion spinners to pick the Pope’s words to suit their particular agendas, their particular brands.
Most of the spin, though, has nothing to do with what Pope Francis said, and how he said it. If you were listening this morning, not just hearing, you witnessed a message that was as poignant in the doing as much as it was in the saying.
With his quiet manner and his deliberate delivery the Pope forced all of us to pause in order to understand.
Last week U.S. Catholic published a piece by Tim Cigelske about the Pope and social media. Cigleske wrote: “In January Pope Francis warned about the ‘speed with which information is communicated.’ He said that today’s great challenge’ is learning how to talk to one another, not simply generating and consuming information.”
And what did he say?
The Pope spoke his truth, in a way that wasn’t offensive, condescending or reactive. Regardless of which side of the aisle they sat, the legislators present found something in his words to admire and something to challenge – it wasn’t a political speech. It was a softly persuasive speech that rested on the presence of a world spiritual leader.
He called us to dialogue.
That was the essence of the Pope’s words, as I listened to them. He called on us to follow his deliberate lead in discussing life, and air pollution, and poverty and fundamentalism, and the arms race, and immigration. This is what I hope isn’t missed, that he didn’t call on us to Tweet our 140 characters at each other; he didn’t call on us to click the “like” button on the posts we agree with; or to add the drive-by comments that make us feel self-satisfied. He called us to the hard work of finding a path to move forward while respecting others’ views.
[pullquote]”All too often things get simplified, different positions and viewpoints are pitted against one another, and people are invited to take sides, rather than to see things as a whole.”[/pullquote]In the midst of the cacophony this is radical stuff.
But it spoke to me, the old-school communicator that I am.
I don’t understand how you can hear me when you’re talking at me. I don’t see how we can find a path of respect. So I’ve been reluctant to jump into the fray where brands matter more than substance and volume is more important than voice.
The Pope has said “Information is important, but it is not enough. All too often things get simplified, different positions and viewpoints are pitted against one another, and people are invited to take sides, rather than to see things as a whole.”
So I’m encouraged, to follow his lead. I’m encouraged by his invitation.
The Pope told us in January “We need, for example, to recover a certain sense of deliberateness and calm.” This morning I saw what he meant. He opened a space where everyone has room to stand. The rest is learning to respect a walk together.
[Photo courtesy of USCCB]
