Digital Restlessness: Social Media and Relationships

The distractions precipitated by our media experiences may sometimes make us feel fragmented and isolated leading to restlessness. It’s time to take an assessment of our lives, our relationships, and our use of technology. We can discover how to live purposefully with our screens without letting them disturb our inner peace and so find true communion with one another in Christ.
objectives:
• Examine the meaning of digital restlessness
• Articulate the cultural yearning for communion vs. connection
• Discover a social media and relationships assessment tool for personal and ministerial use

1. SR NANCY USSELMANN,FSP
bemediamindful.org
Relationships and
Social Media
Digital Restlessness

2. DIGITAL RESTLESSNESS
What is social media doing to us and our relationships?
Why do we feel
this way?
What does it point
to?
What can we do
about it?

3. Endlessly
Distracted
“The Age of Distraction reveals that too many
people walk through life ‘off mission,’ wishing that
they were somewhere else, doing something else.
This distraction clearly costs us.
It costs us enjoyment of life.
It costs relationships.”
—Fr. Mike Schmitz
NEW SECTION

4. Created for
Communion
“The Church herself is a network woven together by
Eucharistic communion, where unity is based not on
‘likes,’ but on the truth, on the ‘Amen,’ by which each
one clings to the Body of Christ, and welcomes
others.”
COMMUNION
—Toward Full Presence, No. 63
Connectivity VS Communion

5. COMMUNION - UNITED IN CHRIST
EUCHARIST TRANSFORMS
EUCHARIST SANCTIFIES
EUCHARIST UNITES

6. Eucharistic Liturgy
1.We come together in Christ to be
offered to the Father
2.Communal worship creates connectivity
3.Recover our humanity as disciples of
Christ
4.Humanize the digital spaces through
the reception of sacramental grace
SACRAMENTAL LIFE

7. SUPPORTS? DETRACTS?
WHAT IS YOUR
EXPERIENCE OF
FRIENDSHIPS
AND
RELATIONSHIPS
ON SOCIAL
MEDIA?

14. HOW WE USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Tool and tactic to help us be
critical engagers of social
media while making concrete
decisions about our usage
MEDIA MINDFULNESS INTENTIONALITY
Being intentional allows us to
take control of our media use
instead of letting it control us

15. Going Deeper
“By orienting digital connections towards encountering real persons, forming real
relationships, and building real community, we are actually nourishing our relationship with
God…. Our relationship with God must also be nourished through prayer and the sacramental
life of the Church.” —Toward Full Presence, No. 24
 
“The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in
contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and
enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with
others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and
becoming more fully human.… I would encourage all people of good will who are active in
the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a
culture of  respect, dialogue and friendship.” —Pope Benedict XVI, 43
rd World Communications Day Message
“We must love everyone with a supernatural, sacramental love. We must love Christ in them
with Christ’s love in us.” —Caryll Houselander
To Consider
In what ways is social media a reflection of human beings’ need to “seek communion with
others”?
How may a sacramental life nourish friendship with others and God?

16. Eucharistic Offering for Social Media
CLOSING PRAYER
Father, in union with all the priests who today celebrate the Eucharist, I offer you Jesus and
myself with him:
—to make amends for the error and evil spread throughout the world through the
misuse of social media;
—to implore your mercy for those who allow themselves to be led astray by
indiscriminate and undiscerning use of social media;
—for the conversion of those who reject Christ, and who use social media in a
manipulative way;
—that everyone may hear and follow him alone whom you, Father, in your boundless
love, gave the world, saying “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!”
—that people’s use of social media may help them recognize Christ as the perfect
Teacher, the secure Way who leads to knowledge of you, Father, and to a sharing in your
own life;
—that in the Church there may be an increase in media apostles who make the message
of salvation resound throughout the world;
—that writers, artists, social media developers, and users may be truly wise and witness
to a life of holiness online;
—that Catholic media initiatives may increase so that true human and Christian values
may counteract the voices of error and evil;
—that all Catholics may recognize the need to be nourished with your Word, Father, and
with the Body of Christ, invoking light, love, and mercy for all people. Amen.
(Adapted from a prayer by Blessed James Alberione, mediaapostle.com)

17. EVANGELIZATION
CHALLENGE
DM a friend and invite them to go with you to
Eucharistic Adoration, pray a rosary together
online, or use a prayer app.
FACETIME
INSTAGRAM
PRAYER APPS
[email protected]
bemediamindful.org