Pope Benedict XVI has not been quite as prolific a traveler as Blessed John Paul II was, but he has surpassed his larger-than-life predecessor in one regard. In one short message he communicated personally with more than a million people around the globe. Well, as personal as a tweet to more than a million people can be. Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank yo... More

Last week I promised my twitter followers: Today, Dimas Rodeela, a Spanish-speaking tweeter from Munich, Germany put me over the top! .. which means I have no choice but to honor my promise. So here you go: … as you can tell from the Vatican flag I am proudly grasping, I was a papist from early on. I have another fun photo to share once my AmP Facebook fanpage crosses the 7,000 fans thr... More

I gotta hand it to my friend Hoopes. After a post over at NRO where he basically blamed Twitter and other social media for Anthony Weiner’s perversion, he came a long way to a rather good post on the potential pitfalls of social media as well as guidelines for responsible usage. None of which surprised me or put me off my consistent message. The most ironic part about it was how he first lam... More

Twitter and Facebook may be a godsend, helping us connect and deepen friendships that have been fractured by technology in the first place. Or they could be a tool of the devil turning us all into narcissistic self-promoters shouting at each other on multimedia platforms several times a day that we are the center of the universe. The Pope says Catholics are supposed to encourage Twitter and Facebo... More

My man Hoopes and I have had a little back and forth going (see here, here, and here) about the impact of modern communication methods on human interaction. His latest (the third “here” above) was a humorous attempt to channel some greats of American history and re-imagine what they might have tweeted at their greatest moments. Now it looks like John White is getting in on the luddite ... More

In my friendly dialogue with Tom Crowe below, the question arises: What effect might our Twitter culture have on the way we think and act? For Anthony Weiner, Twitter gave his scary weirdness a stage on which to strut. What if great figures in America’s past had access to Twitter? Would they have trivialized their lives, too?  Is tweeting compatible with greatness? Herewith, a thought exper... More

I have a post called The Weinerization of America over at National Review. My point: In the modern media world, technology is warping human interaction. What is scary about Anthony Weiner isn’t that he is a high-ranking pervert, but that he is an expression of the zeitgeist. ...READ MORE... More

Now that Anthony Weiner has admitted he lied when he denied he sent a graphic tweet, some advice on preventing the next scandal. ... More

Thanks to all the loyal papists who voted for AmP in the 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards. Through your efforts, AmP won best account to follow on Twitter. During the contest my twitter account (@americanpapist) also passed 5,000 followers. Moving right along! Now would be the perfect time to start following @americanpapist on Twitter. It’s time to see what all the tweeting is about! :-] On... More

For those who may be so inclined, I too shall be live tweeting my reactions to tonight’s returns. Follow me at Twitter.com/TomCrowe… You can follow. Or not. Doesn’t bother me. As with Thomas Peter’s feed, you don’t have to be a tweep to follow my or anyone else’s tweets. ...READ MORE... More