Document final — Les jeunes

The digital environment is characteristic of the contemporary world.Broad swathes of humanity are immersed in it in an ordinary and continuous manner. It is no longer merely about “using” instruments of communication, but living in a highly digitalized culture that has had a profound impact on ideas of time and space, on self-understanding, on understanding of others and of the world, on how to communicate, to learn, to inform oneself, to enter into relationship with others. An approach to reality that privileges images over listening and over reading influences the way people learn and the development of their critical faculty. It is already clear that, “The digital environment is not a parallel or purely virtual world, but is part of the daily experience of many people, especially the young” (Benedict XVI, Message for the XLVII World Day of Social Communications).