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Catholic authenticity over the algorithm

Faith Full Catholic Podcast

This is a video episode. To see me giving this essay, visit YouTube: https://youtu.be/K3GriOjdqRY I don't want to be an algorithm Catholic – it's the presentation of Catholicism based on what might get likes, engagement or something that may turn you into a virus. (That your viral content infects the culture and spreads uncontrollably.) If you see this video, and there's a good chance not many of my subscribers will, you'll know I've been on a bit of a hiatus. It's true I traveled to Ars, France to visit St. Jean Vianney's tomb, to the former Papal Palace in Avignon, to Annecy, France to pray near the remains of St. Francis de Sales, and to Rome and so many sites there. But this hiatus has mostly been because of life – my family, my day job, my other creative projects. The algorithm doesn't like that other life. To keep the algorithm pushing episodes to the audience, people like me have to feed these platforms reliably…or to use a more provocative word: religiously. Faith Full is a Catholic podcast hosted by Tony Ganzer. Visit our website: https://www.faithfullpod.com Donate: https://www.faithfullpod.com/support/ Subscribe on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/faith-full-podcast/id1363835811 YouTube: https://youtu.be/sjFA9QtxwEg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/34sSHs8hHpOCi5csuTtiIv The algorithm is a kind of false idol that has to be fed constantly, and to do it right, it can take a lot of effort. Or nowadays a lot of people just have AI make something. If it's not worth a person taking time to make it, how much is it worth for someone to consume it? People are always finding shortcuts–search engines to get us information nearly instantly are now talking robots that find information, summarize it, and then offer us what we should think about it. AI is top of mind for a lot of us, and Pope Leo provided spiritual guidance for Catholics in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas. This essay is not about that, but it is connected to what I've seen in Catholic media and social media. If you flick through the short-form videos that dominate social media, there is no shortage of Catholic creators making…stuff. You see nuns or priests participating in the latest trends or memes. You see videos of people looking prayerful, telling us how to look prayerful. You see lay and religious figures giving hot takes about news stories or whatever. Even celebrities might push an app or rosary company or any kind of product really with the promise or at least wink toward some added spiritual benefit. Even the appearance of this commercial tint to the faith feels a little icky. In a way, this is part of the New Evangelization of St. Pope John Paul the Great. The faithful used new methods and passion to share the Gospel and rekindle the faith. I am a product of that revival, and I've benefitted from the resources available for evangelization. But there's a point where you have to ask if the Gospel is still being served by the equivalent of religious cat videos. You may get likes and views, but if everyone is putting out content for engagement then it's not serving anything but its own hype. Catholic media also suffers from gatekeeping and echo chambers like secular media does. Content starts to look and sound alike. Old ideas are packaged as innovative. To be considered legitimate you need to play into a particular culture war, or have the right friends, or employ the right dog whistles. Pope Leo was talking to a group of students at Rome University earlier this year, before his encyclical published. He was specifically talking about the suffering of young people in a culture of expectations and a pressure to perform. He said the idea young people must remain trapped in their suffering is a pervasive lie of a distorted system that reduces people to numbers. He continued that we are not the sum of what we have, nor matter randomly assembled. He wasn't talking about media, but these comments speak to me in a profound way. There is a place for the fast food religious videos — candy with little depth, and there is room for a kind of monoculture of corporatized Catholic content. But over time, if we don't rebalance our focus, we become algorithm Catholics. Our Catholicism is merely a reflection of a performance in the black mirrors of our devices. I choose to take inspiration from John the Baptist. He shows that it's okay to serve the Lord apart from the crowds, eating grasshoppers. This podcast remains a passion project for me to share interviews and vignettes from the Catholic faith in a way that may not fit anywhere else, or make me go "viral" or "bacterial." That is okay with me. And I'd be honored if you continue on this journey with me. Grasshoppers are optional. Thank you for listening, and please, have a great day.