Pope2You.net

A Vatican webpage designed with the aim of bringing the words and messages of Benedict XVI to the youth. This site features the Pope’s message for the 43rd World Day of Communications. From this site, young people can send virtual cards to friends that contain an attractive image of the Pope and a quote from one of his addresses.

Pope2You.net also contains the follow features:

Facebook application
iPhone application
The Vatican’s official YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/vatican)

‘I am conscious of those who constitute the so-called digital generation and I would like to share with them, in particular, some ideas concerning the extraordinary potential of the new technologies, if they are used to promote human understanding and solidarity.’

With these opening words, Pope Benedict communicated his message for the 43rd World Communications Day on May 24, 2009, which held the official title: ‘New Technologies, New Relationships. Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship.’[i]

In sum, our Holy Father addressed the reality pervasive in the lives of those popularly identified as Generation Y as well as those born in the 1990’s and the 21st Century in Western or First World countries, whom sociologists now identify as Generation Z, Generation I, or the iGeneration (‘i’ for ‘internet’).[ii] We are experiencing ‘fundamental shifts in patterns of communications’ that affect how we relate to one another. The digital world brought upon us by the advent of the Internet and cellular communications has changed the method by which we converse and relate in our day-to-day lives.