COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

1. The Church and social networks
The Church's interest in communication in social networks demonstrates its ability to accompany human, cultural and scientific development in communication, its ability to dialogue with human beings, and its interest in new ways of establishing communication by playing an active role in new media, an environment which involves the process of creating new ways of relating. The Church and its Magisterium have reflected on “the significant cultural and social developments”[1]that is part of a profound transformation of society.
Social Networks are environments that offer us new possibilities and challenges for evangelization. These new ways of communicating through social networks have as their subjects countries, young people, children, professional people, people of every culture, race and religion.  In looking at social networks in the media world, the Church contemplates, above all, the human individual who is communicating. These new digital spaces of the social networks are environments that also need to be populated by Christians - because Christians who populate these networks are the same ones who inhabit our traditional environments and, furthermore, they are new environments that offer many possibilities for relationship and evangelization.
2. Social networks and digital reality
Communication in social networks has its roots in the profound and complex cultural changes and rapid transformations brought about by information and communication technologies that are gradually influencing ways of social interaction affecting economic and socio-politcal organization, which the Church describes as 'new times'. Social networks are part of the digital era which in itself brings about a cultural and anthropological shift: the human phenomenon of broad and extensive communication in the world of cyberspace and internet, and the tip of the iceberg for a new digital logic and new virtual grammars. In this sense, the networks are an environment, a space which is being ever more integrated within daily existence and catalyzing people through a network of interactive convergence in relationships. This means a new existential and pluralist context. We move and live in this environment. Social networks are not merely technological tools but relational environments, for where the human being is, there is also human seeking, longing, and ways of living and working as a group or in society.
People and their relationships through social networks
3. Historically, human beings form their webs and communication networks through language, symbols, artistic efforts like music, dance, rituals. Art in its multiple aspects is open to the possibility of expressing human feelings, values and beliefs. The human being is naturally a social being, and therefore forms a network of relationships. The newspaper, radio, TV, or cinema, music, form a web of relationships between producers and receivers. The Church itself, since the beginning, has been made up of a network of communities. The network of human relationships and information built up and communicated has the human being as its anthropological base. His chief vocation is to communicate himself and relate with others. From this anthropological perspective, today's social networks present their own features which need to be understood from the digital reality of these new times.
         Social networks today
4. The nature of social networks consists in aggregating people who, in an individual and local context, transpose to a broader context involving groups and a larger collectivity. Social networks make up a grand web of relationships of people of various social and economic classes which consolidate and strengthen social cohesion through new technologies. Social networks are formed from individual interests associated with other individuals and groups with a specific goal, whether entertainment, professional, political, social or religious interests. The networks need to be understood from the point of view of what we call digital culture or cyber-culture, names that mark out contemporary culture, especially from 1970 onwards, such as the rise of micro-information. Social networks have led to transformations of a communication, political, social, cultural and religious nature, once we were able to pass on information of a symbolic rather than material kind in a way previously unknown in human history[2].
         Human mediation through social networks
5. From a sociological and psychological point of view, social networks reveal new aspects of behaviour and attitude that need to be better understood. For example, the use of the new digital logic for building another idea of the world and reinterpreting reality and social relationships. Digital logic breaks with linearity of thought, modifying the concept of time and space in human relationships. Social networks shorten distances and concepts of synchrony and diachrony are modified. Through a computer connected to the network (Internet) anyone can communicate with hundreds and thousands of others near and far, of different social and cultural classes. Through language and virtual technology, and cyberspace, the individual constructs a new universe of meanings, representations, and is immersed in them: this environment of presence and absence is characteristic of the media world. Through the social mediation of the virtual world we can inhabit many social space at the same time (ubiquity). These mediations become ways of constructing personal social identity. These relationships are often experienced at a determined moment, and feature a strong but fleeting emotional involvement. The same individual may have several identities for relationship. The hierarchy of relationships is different. Communication in the network is between equals. Ways of associating and belonging change. The networks are both provisional and ambiguous places. In this new virtual space and time, a person experiences psychological situations that require new studies and insights for future directions for education and formation.
         Social networks and global economic policies
6. Social networks, aligned with economic development, political and social organizations at global level, involve individuals and groups depending on their organizations and structures at both private and state level. The global nature of the Internet and networks is tied up with the internationalization of production, business groups, multinationals, networks of production and entertainment at a global level. These are associated with the expansion of groups and huge global investments that affect the whole of society. In this regard, it relates to the way people and business work, produce, do business and expand their business.  This new interactive and interconnected society has an ethical responsibility to social inclusion as well as being at the service of promoting life, justice and solidarity. This relationship of the networks with the basic structures of society on which everything depends, such as work, information, education, health, requires an ethical stance to ensure respect for the freedom of the individual, cultural values, the common good, economic growth in society. The logic of the network in information systems and political and economic systems impacts on human relationships, the form of production, questions of power, health, ad personal privacy and security.
         Social networks and legal implications
7. Social networks are embedded within a context of human relationships in which there are rights and duties of citizens. The policy of the individual and collective right to communicate is directly related to democracy of societies and nations. Given an open space without confines, the people who inhabit social networks should follow ethical criteria and values described in the Charter of Human Rights of nations that respect the freedom and integrity of people, cultures, races and religions. Every citizen is responsible for his or her conduct in social networks, what is posted, what message is conveyed, and should respect family values, the dignity of the elderly, respect for children and the good of society. Each person who participates in social networks should be aware of the exposure of personal data, privacy and safety.
         Virtual communities
8. Social networks foster the so-called virtual communities. These communities cooperate so that people and interest groups can interact, facilitating communication by means of an elastic, fluid, rapid and flexible communication. There are various kinds of social networks: networks for relationships, professional networks, community and interest group networks which open up a new way of relating between groups on line. With new technologies, social networks are expanding, maturing and growing stronger, and in many situations, create or give rise to virtual communities where the ties between people become as real as traditional relationships. It is worth pointing out that the new network communities can also complement and strengthen traditional communities. This new view of community requires a capacity for dialogue between people, understanding their new concept of time and social space, their way of cooperating and getting involved in social media. This new attitude has a significant impact on how we organize catechetics, meetings of young people, formation encounters, communication channels between communities, our way of educating and evangelizing.
         Privacy and security in the networks
9. The challenges of privacy and security in the online world are challenges that show up in our new media times. Personal data, interests, families, groups, public and private institutions, private information of the Church become increasingly vulnerable.  Education and investment will be needed to see that the rights to privacy and safety of people are guaranteed and to solve the problem of digital exclusion of various groups.
          Evangelization in these new media environments
10. There where the human being is so must the Church be. This new anthropological space of the networks is an invitation for the Church to enter, dialogue and evangelize.  The new digital logic has an impact on theological and pastoral logic. The words of Benedict XVI inviting Christians “confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life”[3] demonstrate the up-to-date Magisterium of the Church in developing dialogue between faith and culture in the world of new technologies and new digital media.  Evangelizing in social networks means seeing the networks as a “place for evangelization”, a place where people feel at home in this new environment and then can evangelize. The Church is called to live in the Net as a place for experience.
         The Christian experience in the new digital logic
11. The starting point for evangelization in the networks is to understand that the biggest changes today are not only of a technological kind, but of a human and relational kind. Connected society is a society greedy for human relationships. It is an attitude of constantly seeking the other, people, community, culture and one's own history and sense of belonging. We are part of networks of relationships whether at private or public level. It is a new state of relationship, a rapid and continuous one, in which we expand our network of relationships in the world of work, education, leisure, culture, art and also religion. In this new habitat, we accompany information, we expand and share knowledge, we engage in the movement of the political, economic, social and religious world. Evangelizing in social networks requires an ability to engage with people who know the new virtual languages and a special way of bringing the Church to people, by understanding them and walking with them in the search of knowledge about the person of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
         Evangelization in the new digital logic and the new media space
12. Evangelizing from the point of view of digital logic and educating in the media spaces require new methods and attitudes. The need for communicators and evangelizers, for example, is important: people who know the new digital languages ​and grammars and can establish a dialogue that leads to mutual understanding and the ability to approach people. Evangelizing in media spaces is not simply inserting religious content into different media platforms, but rather being there, testifying truthfully and consistently to the capacity to love, accept, establish trust, and thereafter make lead people to the discovery of Jesus Christ, a deeper faith and Christian life. Educating and catechizing from the perspective of the new digital logic requires understanding and knowledge of new interactive skills and competencies of people, especially children and young people, interpreting reality with virtual logic, processing information from images, sound, immersion in the virtual environment, and having a mode of engagement and involvement with sociopolitical, cultural and religious issues in the style of the digital natives.
         The pedagogy of new evangelization in social networks
13. The pedagogy of evangelizing and educating in media environments needs to consider other aspects of digital logic. Due to the fragmentation of discourse in the language of network users, narrative and storytelling have a power to attract and engage people in discussing a particular topic. Each person has his or her network profile and a bit of history recorded in photographs and images that make up his or her vocabulary. The topics of conversation are developed from the images, the clips, the sites with shared information and their interests. The pedagogy of encounter and evangelization in the networks must take into account the need for the language of images and narratives. The Gospel is an encyclopedia of images with stories told through parables with beauty and appeal to the imagination and hearts of people.
         The religious journey in social networks
14. Living in social networks is like experiencing a journey. Characterized by ubiquity (a person who is in several places at once), social networks have no boundaries. Besides ubiquity, another important aspect of evangelization in networks is understanding the immediacy of relations, due to the speed and excess information that leads people to tend not to go deep into the content of this information, or even deepen their relationships. It is important here to consider the three levels of communication: rapid contact and information, contact involving a relationship, contact leading to engagement. People who surf the networks have interests and expectations that determine the levels of relationships in general by passing through these three levels.
         Solidarity and socio-political engagement in social networks
15. In social networks, socio-political engagement has its appeal when linked to perceived values, i.e. when experienced and witnessed to, generating credibility and visibility. For example, people feel safer in a humanitarian campaign donating or supporting someone who is dedicated to the poor or the defense of human rights. In general, these commitments are of a provisional nature. Social networks have become a way of organizing groups to meet and articulate service of a cause, but this dynamic is more fluid, rapid and temporary. Many young volunteers, students, and Christians are organized through networks to share their experiences, groups and ministry through social networks.
The pedagogy of silence and beauty in social networking
16. The aspect of beauty, art and silence are important in evangelization from a digital point of view. Art is a language very close to the digital language for its visual aspects, the appeal of color, sounds, the art itself. Art has the power to touch the human heart and imagination beyond rational discourse. Silence is a language that favors both the encounter with the mystery of life and God and the encounter with creative and imaginative power.
The pedagogy of monitoring social networks
17. The new psychological dynamics of the human individual always connected through the internet and social networks requires a new way of looking at things and new approaches on the part of educators and evangelizers in the Church. Virtual communication in networks is changing interpersonal relationships. Being connected is a new mode of human relationship. This new way of relating requires study and analysis of the anthropological and psycho-social aspects involved. The Church must be open to accompanying this new dynamic of human behavior and the impact of these new relationships at the social, political and economic level. The approach of new evangelization by the Church in social networks and media environments requires a change of mindset in evangelizers and educators, to understand and walk with men and women in these new times. The Church must always be a master in the art of moving with the times and introducing Jesus Christ, who is always new and always relevant and necessary. The Church's mission is to get into these new environments for education and evangelization, to bring people to Jesus Christ. It is part of the Church's commitment to its vocation and mission in this world, with wisdom and responsibility.