Social media dialogue should be respectful

The father of a large family passed away recently. During his last days, family members rushed home to see him, but two brothers couldn’t make it.

One brother used his iPhone and was able to share his father’s last precious, sacred moments on a video call. But the second brother was away in another country where Internet and cellphone connections were unavailable, and he never received the news that his father was dying. When he was finally able to go online, he learned by reading condolence messages his friends had posted on Facebook that his father had died.

Social media have a tremendous influence on us. They help us to connect across distance and boundaries, and can also, ironically, increase our sense of fragmentation and disconnection, especially when misused or overused...