76. Writing Supplement: Do social media and instant communication pose obstacles to such reflection and serious thinking?
How can college students practice serious reflection in our always connected and instantaneous world
Please read the three statements, which all relate to the mission and the values of Loyola Marymount University. Choose the one you find most interesting and thought provoking; then, answer the question which accompanies the statement you select. This essay, usually 500 – 1,000 words, is your chance to display your critical and creative thinking.
Choose: Prompt 1
In his 2010 address to representatives of Jesuit universities worldwide, Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits, discussed imagination. He believes that exercising an imagination which grasps reality and involves “a refusal to let go until we get beneath the surface” is a crucial element of Jesuit education. In the same speech, he worried that today’s instant and global communication technologies discourage such deep reflection and engagement with the real and instead foster a “globalization of superficiality.”
Prompt 1 question:
To Fr. Nicolas, imagination requires going to the depths of reality and recreating (re-imagining) it. Do social media and instant communication pose obstacles to such reflection and serious thinking? How can college students practice serious reflection in our always connected and instantaneous world?