The Catholic archbishop of Westminster has come out warning his flock of the dangers of “social networking ^[1],” such as can be found on Facebook and MySpace:

“Friendship is not a commodity,” said the prelate. “Friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it’s right”.

Archbishop Nichols said that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace encouraged a form of communication that was not “rounded”, and would not therefore build communities. “Facebook and MySpace might contribute towards communities, but I’m wary about it,” he said. The Catholic religious leader said young people were being encouraged to build up collections of friends as commodities, that these friendships could easily collapse, and teenagers were therefore left desolate.

As can be seen on the right side of this blog, I am on Facebook, so I do not condemn the technology outright. But I am uncomfortable with its use of the term “friend” to designate those connected to you on the site. A “friend” is more than just a connection on a website, and the devaluing of this term can have serious consequences, as can be seen from the linked article (a young man committed suicide because of the taunts of online “friends”). Whenever we reduce other people to commodities – such as making them just something to increase our list of “friends” online – we seriously endanger their dignity as images of God.