Rather than supporting the growth of commercial technology and artificial intelligence, governments should be supporting families and educators in being the main channels of passing on culture and values, Pope Francis told ambassadors and other diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
“Here we see the importance of media literacy education, which aims to provide the essential tools needed to promote critical thinking skills, to equip young people with the necessary means for their personal growth and their active participation in the future of their societies,” he said in a written speech delivered January 9. “Scientific progress, especially in the area of information and communications technology, has brought undoubted benefits for mankind,” he wrote. At the same time, “it often contributes to polarisation, a narrowing of intellectual perspectives, a simplification of reality, misuse, anxiety and, ironically, isolation, particularly as a result of the use of social media and online games,” the pope wrote. This technology, which is strongly aligned with commercial interests, is “generating a culture rooted in consumerism.” “Parents, close relatives and educators must remain the main channels for the transmission of culture, for the sake of which governments should limit themselves to providing support for them in their educational responsibilities,” especially in promoting media literacy, he wrote.