Roman Catholic Church Head in England Warns Against Perils of SMS, Emailing and Social Networking

Quoting Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, England:

"Friendship is not a commodity, friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it's right," [...]

I think there's a worry that an excessive use, or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community.[...]

Among young people often a key factor in their committing suicide is the trauma of transient relationships. They throw themselves into a friendship or network of friendships, then it collapses and they're desolate."

Archbishop Nichols, 63, also said that it can be "dehumanizing" to use too much electronic information as it could lead to loss in social skills and the ability to interact with people on a face-to-face basis.

My opinion on this is that while it is true that SMS, Emailing and other electronic means of getting in touch with each other have really made life a lot easier for most of us, Archbishop Nichols also has valid points in his statement. The Philippines is a largely Catholic nation and I would like to think it shouldn't be too hard for most of us to understand where Archbishop Nichols is coming from. As such, his statement warrants reflection.

How about you? Care to share what you think regarding this? :)
[via Yahoo News]