Archbishop warns of Facebook suicides

Says site encourages "transient relationships"

3 August 2009 9:39 GMT / By Duncan Geere

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, has warned against children using social networking sites because he says they make teenagers view friendship as a "commodity".

He said that the Internet and mobile phones were "dehumanising" community life, and said that humans are losing the ability to detect mood and read body language, due to a decrease in the number of face-to-face conversations that people experience.

"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", said the Archbishop.

"Among young people often a key factor in them 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".

Is the Archbishop right, or is he barking up the wrong tree? Share your opinion in the comments.

Via: telegraph.co.uk

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