How do you feel about the media and their place in your life? As someone who works in digital media daily, I sometimes swing on a pendulum of emotions about digital media. On one end, I love the way that media so easily connects me with other people, and at the other, the desire to throw away my cell phone or kick in my computer screen in frustration is a superficial temptation.
Do you agree with any of the following statements:
- The media are destroying our values and our families
- The media are a wasteland, with very little of value to offer, but I can’t turn them off
- The media are so much a part of my family, the cell phones need their own place at the family dinner table
- I feel so helpless and depressed after…
- reading/watching the news online
- looking at the selection of shows to watch on cable/netflix/amazon
- scrolling through my Facebook feed
- your choice
What if you could transform your relationship with the media world?
In my lifetime, our world has been transformed several times over by the development of media. And yet, our understanding of how the media affect us—individually as persons, societally within a culture, and globally across the world,—cannot keep up with the media’s rapid development. Wonderful people are working on these critical questions, yet, if we are unhappy with the way we relate to the media culture, we can make changes: we can be more intentional about how we receive, interact, and produce media.
Wouldn't it be worth a little time and attention to change your relationship with our media world for the better?
For the people in touch with us through our Pauline Center for Media Studies, this is an important question. People have been so eager for more about media mindfulness from us that we decided to begin offering courses online. If you are ill at ease in your relationship with media—or are concerned about the media practices of members of your family—I encourage you to take a first step.
Sister Hosea Rupprecht, FSP, offers a free course online, Praying the Media, that offers a refreshing point of view and tools that can begin to transform your relationship with the digital landscape of your life. In just one hour, Sr. Hosea covers:
- Why Pray with the Media?
- Praying the News includes a handy downloadable guide (PDF) that you can use personally or with family, parish prayer group, and friends)
- Meeting Jesus at the Movies shows how being more attentive to media and the messages they contain—in this case, a well-chosen film—can both enrich our faith and challenge us to live our faith more deeply
- In Praying with the Liturgy of the Church, Sr. Hosea’s encouragement on how to pray with the Scripture readings from Mass includes an example of a guide and a movie clip for Advent and Lent.
Praying the Media Course is just one way that you could take a step in being more mindful and deliberate in how you use the media in your daily life. Considering how media-saturated modern life is, taking a first step towards improving your relationship with the media could be well worth it!
Additional tools to transform your relationship with our media world can be found in several other inexpensive wonderful courses offered by the PCMS. Here is a current list of topics (with more to come!):
- Media Literacy: What is it?
- Cultural Mysticism
- Faith Formation in a Digital Age
- Virtue Ethics in a Digital Mediascape
If there is a topic or area that you would like to see addressed, please contact us and let us know!
Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash