Pope Francis meets with YouTube stars and vloggers.
The Internet seems to be in love with Pope Francis. In fact, Twitter sought to capitalize on the Pope’s visit by airing a national commercial featuring the leader of the Roman Catholic church. Even though he considers himself a technology “dinosaur,” Pope Francis met with 12 YouTube vloggers for an hour-long, face-to-face meeting. The vloggers present at the meeting cover everything from video games to beauty tips on their vlogs. According to reports, Pope Francis took the time to talk to the group of YouTube stars about using the platform to improve the lives of younger people.
Pope Francis has talked about the Internet frequently in the past. “The digital world is a public square, a meeting place where we can either encourage or demean one another, engage in a meaningful discussion or unfair attacks,” he said in January. “The Internet can be used wisely to build a society which is healthy and open to sharing.”
The meeting will eventually will be vlogged by each of the participants, who come from 10 different countries and have a collective total of 26 million subscribers, according toYouTube’s news release on the meeting. Each YouTuber got to ask the pope a question, after being introduced and telling him about what sort of things their channel made. According to YouTube, the group talked about “immigrant rights, gender equality, loneliness and self-esteem, and greater respect for diversity of all kinds.”
Apparently in response to a question about whether this soccer goal was the result of God intervening or nah, Francis dodged and talked about what he believed the YouTube stars in the room could do to help those of their followers who were having a hard time, according to the Guardian. “You can create a virtual identity; you belong to this circle at least virtually,” he said. “From that you can start taking a path of optimism and hope.”
It’s interesting to see how the digital world is quickly changing. Previously, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church would meet with A-list actors, models, and celebrities. Nowadays, companies, Presidents, and the leader of Catholicism is meeting with regular men and women who just choose to share their life on YouTube.
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