World Youth Day USA Guides Stateside Pilgrimage Leaders Guide | Page 10

is meaningful, not marginal. The stateside

person watches four and a half hours of

gathering, viewing parties, parish prayer

television per day2 and as much as three and a

services, digital pilgrimages, and even joining

half hours on social networking.3 Through

in a practice such as sampling food particular

multiple platforms, young people consume as

to the host country during the World Youth

much as 3,000 advertisements per day4 and

Day “feast” are ways that Catholics in the

will view 200,000 acts of violence in the media

United States can truly be part of the story of

by the age of 18.5 Ten years ago, advertisers

World Youth Day, and be transformed in the

spent in excess of 17 billion dollars on

process. Everyone, then, can be a pilgrim on

marketing to teens per year.6 Imagine what

this journey.

that number is now.

The Digital Age: Knowing the Pitfalls

The statistics are staggering and the impulse

There is a general eagerness on the part of

of the concerned parent or ministry is to

those who minister to younger generations –

counteract the onslaught of secular media by

those who live largely in the digital universe –

adding sacred media to the flood. However,

to jump into the latest technology with the

more is not necessarily better; rather, better is

same eagerness of a missionary who wants to

better. Throwing out more content for

know and utilize every intricacy of the culture

consumption without regard to its impact is

where he or she is sent. The work of the

not the answer and can yield negative, even if

New Evangelization calls for a use of variety

unintended, consequences.

of media to reach people, especially youth and
Researchers out of Humboldt University and

young adults.

Darmstadt’s Technical University in Germany
Media researchers may differ slightly on

conducted studies demonstrating that

specifics, but unquestioned is the abundant

“Facebook envy” is a reality plaguing those

consumption of media by youth and young

who use social media abundantly. For

adults. Reports suggest that the average young

example, a subject viewing images on social

2

5

Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Children, violence, and
the media: a report for parents and policy makers. September
14, 1999.
6 James McNeil quoted in Horovitz, B. (2006, November 22).
Six Strategies Marketers use to Make Kids Want Things Bad.
USA Today, p. 1B

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/business/media/you
ng-people-are-watching-but-less-often-on-tv.html?_r=3&hpw
3 http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/socialnetworking-eats-up-3-hours-per-day-for-the-averageamerican-user-26049/
4 Goodman E. Ads pollute most everything in sight. Albuquerque
Journal. June 27, 1999:C3

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