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By Carol Baass Sowa
Today's Catholic
SAN ANTONIO • Danielle Bean, senior editor of Faith & Family Magazine and Web editor of faithandfamilylive.com, first became aware that her pre-schoolers were becoming media savvy when she observed her 4-year-old son doing imaginary “texting” on one of his wooden blocks and her 3-year-old daughter demanded to know if her crayon artwork was “blog-worthy.”
Bean was in San Antonio June 27 to speak at the international Catholic New Media Celebration, put on by the Star Quest Production Network. Speaking on “New Media and Your Family,” Bean pointed out four salient facts regarding new media ? it is instant, portable, customizable and keeps us connected.
The importance of this instant new media for Catholic families, she said, is that it enables them to bring Christ to the world in new ways. New media can be especially helpful for converts, said Bean, as they often have questions on how to live out the Catholic faith on a daily basis, not having been raised in a Catholic home. “We can give them that peek into our window through blogs, through Ustreaming, through podcasts,” she said.
There is a downside to instant communication, however, as anyone who has ever posted something in haste on a blog or social networking platform such as Twitter or Facebook knows, to their chagrin. And even if you haven’t had that unfortunate experience, Bean noted, you can be sure that your children ? using new media at such a young age ? will have cause to regret the kind of instant reaction that a more mature person might have more carefully thought out.
“If our goal is to have thoughtful, prayerful discourse with other people,” she said, “people who might think differently from us, instant communication can be tricky.”
She personally advises fellow moms who are upset over a criticism someone has posted about them, to give themselves 24 hours to think over their response, rather than immediately reacting out of hurt pride. “It’s been my experience,” she added, “that if you wait at least that long, you’re totally over it.”
The portability of iPhones and the like, connecting you to the internet in a variety of forms, can be a blessing or a curse. “You can bring your ministry wherever you go,” said Bean, noting that dropping off a child somewhere with a cell phone can provide security and peace of mind. On the other hand, being constantly connected others is not always healthy. “Sometimes we need to ponder and we need to reflect and we need quiet,” she said. “We don’t need to be consuming constantly or communicating constantly.”
Sometimes the reporting on or sharing your life via the new media can overshadow actually living your live, as Bean was reminded when she grabbed her camera on the way to a family outing. One of her sons rolled his eyes and announced, “You are not blogging this!” (She didn’t.)