I first started working with teenagers and young adults in 2003, Facebook hadn’t even been created yet! Less than 15 years later, by 2017, 91% of 16 to 24-year-olds were using social media for social networking. This teaches me two things: One, I’m getting old! Two, the social landscape of our young people has radically changed. Vast amounts of our social interactions now happen via digital means. It’s hard to imagine life without WhatsApp, Instagram and Netflix.

Whilst the digital revolution has brought about astonishing levels of convenience and communication, it has an increasingly well-documented ‘dark side’. Our understanding of reality is being manipulated by agenda-driven algorithms. Our children are vulnerable to online predators even within the safety of their own homes. Statistics concerning young peoples’ mental health rarely make for bedtime reading. We seem to be a society embroiled in a technology we can’t tame.

And yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw unprecedented levels of people gathering online for prayer through streamed services. People coordinated massive relief efforts, collecting and delivering essentials to the most vulnerable in our society. Young people met online for faith exploration, community, friendship, and inspiration through church youth groups and chaplaincies. Family members who live on the other side of the world were beamed into our living rooms every week.

As a Catholic, the tension between the good and the bad of digital media intrigues me. On one level, it poses fundamental threats to our young peoples’ freedom, privacy, wellbeing, character and safety. On another level, it enables the Church to find a new, fresh voice in a culture that has all but stopped listening to it! Digital media can undermine, undervalue, and underdeliver. But it can also inspire, create and connect. 

How can the Church navigate its way through this new digital terrain? How can we protect our young people from harm? How can we encourage them to grow in character and virtue in a world of digital choice? How can we inspire our young people to live their lives to the fullest and not get lost in a digital world of introspection, comparison and misperception? How can the Church reflect the beauty of its faith to a world that is image-driven? If we believe that God speaks to every generation, how can He speak now, through our digital tools?

These are some of the questions explored by the Trinity Conference: A Catholic Response to the Digital Age, which was held online earlier this month. We began to unpick some of these questions, to seriously reflect on the challenges, and to share some of the best opportunities, so that the Church can proceed with confidence in a digital age.

Hannah Hayward is the Coordinating Lay Chaplain at Leeds Trinity University. For access to talks and/or a hard copy of the conference publication, email Hannah on h.hayward@leedstrinity.ac.uk.