NEW FORMS
of media still called digital media, which are
accessed via computers, tablets, and especially now smartphones, and whose
content is mainly that of the Internet, social networks, and messages (SMS,
MMS, etc.) have invaded the lives of contemporary people and especially those
of today’s youth, from the age of ten and sometimes younger.
Their ability to communicate quickly and almost at no cost, the
possibility they provide of accessing nearly everyone and everything, and the
power of the images circulated in digital media imbue digital media with a
considerable power of seduction. Social pressure (in particular the pressure to
conform), but also the economic organization of society, has made these into
tools one is almost obliged to have so as not to be excluded from various
social, administrative, or economic groups or circles.
Mostly, however, it is a dependence of an internal or
psychological nature that has been established among users of all ages. This
addiction worries many parents, as it now affects many children, and it is even
noted by the users themselves; we see this addiction most clearly in the most
severe cases, where drastic treatment, in particular in the form of a long-term
total withdrawal from such media, is required, and sometimes clinical
psychiatric care as well. Yet this addiction often remains unperceived in less
serious cases, since habit is capable of making what is not normal appear to be
so. It should be noted: for most users, the use has become abusive.
At this conference, which has brought together actors from the
Orthodox media, the media are presented in most cases in a positive way, as
either belonging to the ecclesial life or as being something which ought to
belong to it, with the idea that they have now become driving forces
indispensable to the pastoral and missionary activity of the Church. This
quasi-paradisiacal vision, however, must be tempered. In real life, people
spend far less time visiting Orthodox sites than they do others, and many young
Orthodox remain completely oblivious to them. In the vast majority of cases,
the passions that inhabit fallen man attract him to content in conformity with
these passions, whether via the choice of sites visited or via the motivations
for communicating on social networks such as Facebook, where narcissism (which
the Greek Church Fathers call philautia
) plays a considerable role, whether in
the staging of oneself or in the frenzied quest after “likes” that flatter the
ego.
I recently published a 320-page book entitled “Sick of the new
media” (in French : “Malades des nouveaux médias”), which has been translated
into Romanian under the title “Prisoners of the Internet,” and which is
currently being translated into English under the title “Addicts of Modern
Media.” In this book, I show in a very detailed and reasoned way the negative,
corrosive, and destructive effects the new media have on the various spheres of
human life: psychic, intellectual, cultural, social, relational, and finally
(and especially) spiritual. I also propose a few preventative and therapeutic
measures, especially of a spiritual nature. For this presentation, which must
be very brief, I have chosen to speak only about fasting and abstinence as
means for limiting and controlling the use of new media, which in most cases
has become abusive and harmful.
Concerning the consumption of food and sexual activity, the
Orthodox Church has established rules of limitation and abstinence for the
Lenten periods as well as certain days of the week and of the year.
One of the main purposes of these rules is to accustom the mind
to controlling the bodily and psychic impulses, to reorient and refocus the
psycho-physiological forces towards the spiritual life, to establish a state of
hunger and desire causing a person to sense their dependence on God and their
need for Him, and to establish in the soul a peaceful state disposed to
penitence and promoting attention and concentration in prayer.
The abuse of new media, which has become common, produces
effects contrary to those sought by fasting and abstinence: the vain exhaustion
of energy, permanent external solicitation and dispersion, incessant internal
movement and noise, an invasive occupation of time, the impossibility of
establishing or maintaining inner peace, and the destruction of the attention
and concentration necessary for vigilance and prayer.
These effects, it should be stressed, are related to the use of
new media once a certain threshold has been reached, regardless of their
content. As the great media expert Marshall McLuhan has shown, the medium has a
greater impact than the message it conveys, to the point that we can say that
“the medium is the message.” This, of course, should not make us forget the
question of the content, which, when it is bad, ends up inciting and nourishing
the passions, further increasing the degree of incompatibility with the ascetic
life broadly understood and harming even more the spiritual life.
The Church must take into account these new circumstances
created by our time, and must establish appropriate rules, accompanying those
of fasting from food and sexual abstinence, so as to help modern man, through
regular voluntary limitation, to free himself from the new addictions that bind
him, and so as to give him the means to lead in full the spiritual life
befitting his nature and serving as the condition for his true personal
development.
One could say that no rule is necessary for this, and that
pastoral recommendations suffice; but one could say the same thing, however,
with respect to fasting from food or sexual abstinence, for which the Church
has established canons, and in solemn manner no less, at Ecumenical Councils,
by reason of the fact that rules that formulated officially and with precision
have a greater impact, have a more universal scope, and are of a more
obligatory character than mere recommendations at the parish level, which
moreover are not always made.
The question that arises here is that of the nature of fasting
and abstinence practiced.
As mentioned above, it is a matter of limiting the amount of
time one is connected and of strictly regulating the use and content of these
media. It is necessary to give up being permanently connected, and to limit the
connection to one defined period in the day. We need to get rid of unnecessary
media, such as social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) and all
entertainment websites. Any websites that pose a risk of temptation or leading
to bad encounters should obviously be avoided. It is also fitting to limit
one’s Internet connection to what is strictly necessary for professional work
or studies.
Parents need to teach their children, who use these new media,
to implement such a limitation by explaining to them the meaning behind it.
The Lenten periods opportunities open to all for jettisoning the
artificial and virtual relationships of social networks so as to rediscover
deep, concrete, and real relationships with family and friends, and in general
so as to be more attentive to the people around us. These Lenten periods are
also opportunities for rediscovering silence and solitude, which are necessary
for the practice and development of the spiritual life.
The question that risks provoking ire here in the context of
this conference is whether the rule of fasting and abstinence from new media
should be extended to Orthodox sites as well. I do not want to put most of the
participants in this symposium out of a job, and my aim is even less to limit
the presence of the Christian and ecclesial word in a world where it is already
too little present.
But first of all, I would like to point out that during the
Lenten periods, and especially Great Lent, a number of Orthodox media,
especially those with spiritual content, are self-limiting: they either close
their sites for a period of time of various length, or at least slow down and
restrict their production.
Such a restriction has an exemplary value and testifies in its
own way to the existence of Lent and the limitations to which it calls us.
My second remark concerns reading. It is true that in a very
positive way, most Orthodox media offer spiritual readings at least in part,
and some sites are even devoted solely to such literature. There is therefore
no reason, in principle, to limit the production or consultation of such sites,
and it seems that it should even be encouraged, insofar as the faithful are
encouraged to do more spiritual reading during the Lenten periods.
However, I would like to point out here that the scientific
studies that have been done on the methods of reading on a screen show that
this type of reading is both rapid and superficial.
On screens, texts appear to us as images. For this reason, the
text on a screen becomes the object of a sweeping gaze, just as in the case of
an image, with one’s eye usually resting on only a few lines.
One study found that the vast majority of people do not read the
text line by line, as they would in a book, but rather jump quickly from the
top of the page to the bottom, in a movement generally following the shape of
the letter F: they read the first lines, go down a little, read the left part
of a few lines, then go down along the left side of the page.
A second study concluded that the average reader on the Internet
only reads about 20% of the text.
A third study found that most web pages are viewed at most for
10 seconds, which clearly shows that they are not really being read.
Reading on a screen barely stops on words or phrases. It is a
reading where there is little backtracking, and is not very reflexive. It is a
superficial reading which hardly gives rise to efforts of comprehension and
memorization.
In many ways, new media make the relationship to the text
lighter, more unstable, more fragile, more ephemeral.
Fasting periods can and should be periods when the time for and
the quality of reading can be regained by abandoning digital media in favor of
printed materials, and especially books, which all studies show allow for a
much more fruitful reading than do screens, while lacking the disadvantages of
the latter.
Completely cutting oneself off from media of any kind during the
Lenten periods is an ideal solution for finding the hesychia indispensable to
the deepening of the spiritual life, which is precisely the main goal of the
fasting periods.
In conclusion, I would like to note that many private clinics
and hotels offer longer or shorter stays of total disconnection, starting on
the low end at prices of 1000 euros, or about 1200 dollars, per week. The
Orthodox Church should officially offer this possibility during the Lenten
periods as a guaranteed free service, thus making it accessible to all, and
moreover with a spiritual profit not found elsewhere. One of these clinics has
as its advertising slogan: “Disconnect to reconnect.” The Church can make this
slogan her own by specifying: “Disconnect from new media to reconnect with God
and your neighbor.”
*Originally presented at the 2nd International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Care, 18-21 June, Anno Domini 2018
Jean-Claude Larchet is a philosopher and patrologist who is known for his examinations of patristic writings on the causes and consequences of spiritual and physical illness. He is an Honorary Professor of philosophy and theology at the National Institute of Geneva.
