Consecrated life in a digital world: Towards a deeper understanding of some paradigm shifts in human environment

Abstract

As the digital media has enormously changed the world in the past few decades, especially after the arrival of smartphones, religious life is also experiencing its influence in various ways. There have been only minimum efforts to academically evaluate the situation. This article is an effort to critically understand the paradigm shift that digital environment is bringing into the religious life and its traditional way of existence. Based on the data available about digital natives, this reflection notes that increased involvement in the digital environment could be inversely correlated to mental health, compassionate behaviour, and religious affiliation. Moreover, it is pointed out that in a world of online communities, call to a religious community life demands strong convictions about one’s religious vocation and efforts to seek a right balance between one’s online and offline existence. The need of sticking to traditional community activities while transforming the formation pedagogy to nurture life in a digital environment is also pointed out.