Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and responsible for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers Exaudi readers his article.

FACTS

To keep young children from bothering their parents, they are given cell phones to keep them entertained, so that the parents can do other things without being solely focused on their children, or chat freely with friends, or check their own cell phones to stay informed not only of personal or family messages, but also of what is being shared on different applications or social networks.

If this happens with the youngest children, what can be said of other children, teenagers, and young adults! They no longer develop concentration, silence, or memory because they entrust everything to their cell phones. The same thing happens to us adults, including clergy and nuns. Sometimes we’re in a pastoral meeting or assembly, important points are being discussed, a vote must be taken, and the vote is cast without much concentration.

I use my computer and cell phone moderately, but there are times when I don’t use either of them; I don’t carry my cell phone around everywhere. Years ago, a bishop friend congratulated me for doing this, because he had three cell phones and complained that it took up too much of his time to keep track of them all, often for trivial matters.

LIGHTNING

Pope Leo, in a dialogue he had on June 21 with children and young people who were spending a few days at a camp in the Vatican gardens, told them:

“How can we disconnect from screens a little? Something important: technology can be very good and useful for many things, but when we’re together, it’s not necessary to have our cell phones, phones, or tablets in our hands all the time. And, in fact, we feel happy when, from time to time, we’re not glued to our tablets or cell phones. So that would be a first thing. It’s very important to form friendships, get together, play together, maybe even study together as people, not as computers or machines, not as techno-robots. We are human beings, people, and contact with others is very important. So that would be a first thing.”

Also within the family: when the family gets together, it’s not enough for everyone to be there, each one looking at their phone. It’s very important to learn to talk, to converse, to get along with each other, to play together, and also to pray together, because even though we might have the Bible and some prayers on our phones, God doesn’t want to look at our phones: God wants to look at our hearts, at our lives. And so, to be free from these things, which in themselves can be fun, helpful, something nice, but it’s much more important to develop our humanity through friendship, conversation, and also with all the things you’ve been doing during these months here. So I think this is something very important.

The other point—this is for those who are a bit older—is to be mindful of the mechanism: a kind of addiction that is deliberately incorporated into the programs and apps on our phones. They try to make us dependent on this technology. That’s why it often helps to set limits, to say: “After a certain hour, I won’t look at my phone anymore”… “At certain times, I prefer to talk with my family, to be together”… So I think these things will help us disconnect a little. We’re not all connected to a cable, are we? We’re human beings. To live and develop this human dimension. And also the spiritual part of our lives: seeking God in prayer, seeking God together as a family, living a little freer from this dependence on technology.

It’s important not to depend too much on technology. It’s much better to learn to think for ourselves, to develop the critical thinking skills to know where we’re going in life. Study well, use the abilities God has given us! I don’t need a cell phone if my brain is working! Yes, it can help, it can give me information, but it’s also important to prepare well. God has given us a wonderful capacity with our minds, with our brains. So, in general, I would say this is something that benefits us all.

In a video from June 21st, sent to young people spending a few summer days at an American university, he told them something about how to live joyfully:

“The joy that Saint Francis spoke of cannot be found through electronic devices, by spending hours in front of a screen, or by endlessly scrolling through social media every day. These activities often waste precious time that could be spent in silent prayer, cultivating genuine friendships, spending quality time with family, learning more about the faith, studying, or playing sports.”

Joy should never be sought through drug use, alcohol abuse, promiscuity, superficial relationships, obsession with our image, or any other type of harmful behavior.”

ACTIONS

Let’s learn to use these tools, but without becoming slaves to them. They are very useful, no one can deny that; but we must dedicate specific amounts of time to them, except in emergencies.