In this week's episode of the Catholic Influencers Podcast, Danii and Fr Rob discuss the pros and cons of social media, what the church has said about it and 5 things Catholics should consider when they use social media.
Danii interviews Richcy Orozco, founds of Catholic Connect about how @catholicconnect grew into a huge online community for Catholics and some of the things he's learnt on this journey.
An OSV Podcasts partner. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.
In this week's episode of the Catholic Influencers Podcast, Danii and Fr Rob discuss the pros and cons of social media, what the church has said about it and 5 things Catholics should consider when they use social media.
Danii interviews Richcy Orozco, founds of Catholic Connect about how @catholicconnect grew into a huge online community for Catholics and some of the things he's learnt on this journey.
An OSV Podcasts partner. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.
Oh Yo, yo. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Catholic influences podcast, a conversation to help Catholic influences like you and me, go deeper and further in our relationship with God and to share and influence the world for Jesus. I'm your host, father of gallium and Daniel courthouse, Danny Sullivan, and we look forward today to talking to you about social media.
Speaker 2:I feel like you got really Sassy in that you can actions that I followed her up well. I tried to to try and make it, mix it up, mix it up a little bit. Yeah, I liked that. I liked that a lot. So yeah. We're going to talk about social media today. What was the last thing that you post on social media? I feel like you post a lot more than me.
Speaker 3:Well, I am post a lot about a lot of different things. The last thing I posted was a gym post. Oh yeah. Well I try. I put usually one gym posts a week. I try to post about my life. Part of my life is gym. Part of my life is sprayer. Part of my life is preaching. Part of my life is doing this podcast. That was the pilot, the post before that. How about yourself? What do you post?
Speaker 2:Um, I think I've posted once this year. I'm fairly sure it was a photo of me and my mom. There you go. It's what March now? Middle of March? No,
Speaker 3:well yeah, it's April, but that's sure is how much attention I'm paying this year. Yeah. But do you also look after the Social FRG Ministry? Social media as well? So, sure. I posted a picture of a church today because we are actually in a very special week of prayer and a special week of, of focusing on Jesus and I, I like you like one of the things that you do is every week or is it every week? Like you post about the gospel of the week?
Speaker 2:It's supposed to be every week. Yeah. It depends if I remember on Sunday morning.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that's one of the things that maybe we can talk about in social media when it comes to social media. The importance of consistency.
Speaker 2:I feel like that was just my boss stuff like Danny, oh you've got a job to do. Yeah. You have to be consistent with your posts. Oh, I'll consider it. Um, yeah. So we all talk about social media today and there's 3.4 billion people on a social media account and the biggest site, Instagram and Facebook and youtube. Amazing. And we chat as well actually. So those are the four big ones. Chat. Yeah. I don't have a weechat. Oh, what's up? Is it, is it like a whatsapp? It's like it was out, but I think the difference is that it's allowed in China. So that's why it's so big. When my friend went to China, she like forced me to download WeChat. So of course you forced me. That's amazing. She's still very influential. Wow. She asked nicely,
Speaker 3:but the 3.4 billion, that's like there are 7 billion people in this world. And so like that's a lot of people on social media.
Speaker 2:It is. And I guess, you know, this is Catholic in full, this podcast. So how should Catholics use social media? And the, thankfully the church has actually told us this and they told us in like 1963 I think it was. So before social media was created before it was a thing, the church was already explained to us like how we can use, I think that the document was called like media of social communications, something in Latin though I'm sure it had the Latin name, I can't say the Latin word so that he can do document code media or social communications, but in Latin it said that we had to learn moderation and discipline in the use of media so that we can fully understand what we see here and read to discuss them with teachers and experts. They were already advised in like this is, it's good, but you have to know how to use it and to be wise about using it I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it was in 1963 I suppose it was a time where social media was radio, television, movies and things like that. And so, yes, they are. And in that context it hasn't really changed that we need, we have power in our hands when it comes to media. Well before it belonged to organizations. Now it belongs to us. It's in our hands. And I don't think we realize as human beings just how much power we have in our hands when we hold our phone in our hands to influence the world and also to impact the lives of other people and our own lives as well. So yes, this is a very powerful document, which really, even though it was written before the age of social media, it's very relevant today. So yeah, the social media is very powerful and sort of the way we use, um, some people have more power than others. The way they influence others, not only because they have different, more followers, but because of sometimes even the things we post to things we do, we make can make ourselves really vulnerable. And I think this generation hasn't really understood the power we have over our own lives. You know, like for example, when you go for a job interview, the first thing that people are going to look at when you applied for a job is not your references. They're not gonna look at your, um, your qualifications. Even. Maybe they'll let peruse through that, but the first thing they're going to do is they're going to look you up on Facebook, they're going to look you up on Twitter. They know a lot about a person and what they put on social media. So it is a, it has a power over our own lives, the influence overall, our own lives, but also the lives of others.
Speaker 2:I remember reading in an article once that whatever you put online is public and it's public forever because the Internet, you know, there's no way to end it or to hide it. So those, this great article, like whenever I post something online, this person that was writing it said that they try to think of all the ways they might ever need to defend it. And that is how they judge if they should post it or not, is if I need to defend this, can I? Yes.
Speaker 3:And it's the same and that, again, this is what this document is, that this church documents as well. It talks about being wise, being and understanding the influence that we have on the our own lines, but also on the lives of other people. And just, you see, even when we speak, it's the same when we speak, we have a responsibility over our lives and over the lives of others. And even more so when we have allowed microphone, we have allowed platform like social media and just because we can have a voice, it doesn't mean we should speak it out. And there's always a balance you see between truth and love. Just because something is true, it doesn't mean I have to say it. For example, if someone's walking through the street and maybe they can, I don't know, they're not walking right there just because I don't sit, go up to them and say, Hey, you're not walking. Right. Just because maybe it is true that they're not walking right. We always need to act out of Laos and social media. One of the ways we influence people is if there is no, if you don't, I don't know if your momma used to tell you this, but my mom always says if you have nothing nice to say then and I'll be in an old saying nothing at all. He knows my mom's favorite saying yes. And so it's accounts for ourselves and it counts for others as well. Another interesting thing about social media I find is that sometimes it can replace, it can replace, um, sort of human relationships or what are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's really true. Um, you know, and we can get so wrapped up in what we're posting online and that little rush of joy whenever someone likes it like that in some instances has replaced authentic relationships. And there are so many positive things about social media, like you're saying, we can speak the truth. We can have this loud microphone in this platform to reach so many people. But there's also dangers. And one of those dangers is that it has the potential to replace real life, authentic relationships.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And we can justify all so bad actions through the way we present ourselves on social media. People say, Aha, okay. I don't know that talking about the way they re the way they exercise, you know, and they, and I think one of the things that's one of the things that I do, but I make sure, for example, that I'm living that life. It's too easy to live a double life, to live a happier life on social media and then live a miserable life in reality. And the way we portray ourselves sometimes is unfair because if you look at everyone's social media, it's like everyone's happy. Everyone's having a perfect life. When in reality it's not a, we struggle, we go through difficulties, but those are not instagrammable moments are they?
Speaker 2:Yeah. They're not usually very photogenic marmots. Yeah,
Speaker 3:absolutely. Like when you wake up first thing in the morning or when you have an argument with a parent, you know, those are the moments that they don't make to your Instagram story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And I think Pope Francis spoke, we had this as well, that the social media is a gift from God, but if it's used wrongly or when it's like that, it can, it can lead to a radical sense of loneliness. And I think that's so true. Like it's saying that even lack the pope has realized that yes, social media is good. It can be damaging to us if we only put the positive stuff on there for we only seen fake fake news, fake positivity, then it can lead to us feeling bad about ourselves. Yeah,
Speaker 3:absolutely. And so I think that the, it doesn't mean that you wake up in a bad mood and you post about that, but I think at the same time, we don't measure your life on the Instagram moments of others because that can be so depressing. You know, and this is one thing I'm careful of as well in my social media. I do post moments of myself at the gym and flexing and[inaudible] moments where I'm praying. But they're also, I talk about in the post moments where I'm really struggling to get to the gym moments where I am really struggling to pray and those usually make my Instagram story, not my Instagram wall, but I think it's so important as well for us to be real and to realize that to eat behind the photo shopped and the the spray painted Kim Kardashian's at life. There's also moments of struggle moments where they have arguments at home moments where they don't want necessarily to portray on social media and we as individuals need to understand that.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about five things that Catholic should consider when using social media. So yes, the first thing is when you post, think about what you're posting and the reasons why you're posting it. Is it so that you can share your real authentic life? Is it out of vanity or pride or is it pointing to Jesus like what are you trying to portray with your online presence and does that mirror up with your real self? I think that's a really important thing to consider.
Speaker 3:Exactly. But it doesn't mean you don't post a moments when you're looking good. It doesn't mean you don't post moments that, um, uh, happy moments, but at the same time, are they real? Are they real too to your life? Yes, that's a fantastic point. And the, I'm just reading here this best John Three 30, he must increase, but I must decrease. So as social media should point to someone beyond ourselves, doesn't mean every post has to point to beyond ourselves. But as a whole, are we pointing to who are we glorifying? Who are we lifting up? So at the end of the day, I true Catholic it through Christian is overall in all their posts. And it doesn't mean in every post, but through their posting are pointing to a life that follows. And that's centered around Jesus.
Speaker 2:And the second thing to think about is who are you following? Who are the people that you're inspired by or the images that you're seeing on your feed? How do they make you feel? Does scrolling through your newsfeed make you feel positive? Does it make you think and ask deeper questions or do you finish a scroll that reached the end, you know, reach the end of your Instagram feed and all of a sudden you just feel jealous or you feel empty at your own life because it doesn't quite measure up to the influencer that you're following.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And so it's about looking after your internal climate. Yeah. So just making sure that I'm[inaudible] it's okay for posts to make you uncomfortable. I follow all types of people. I follow people who make me really uncomfortable. You know, people who I don't agree with. And I think it's important for me not to have on my feed, only people I agree with, but also at the same time protect your heart as you were saying, protect um, your soul, Brandon. But for example, and men and women, I suppose just be careful what, what you're watching and what is on your feet. If you're having half naked men and women constantly on your three feet, you, you're affecting your internal climate as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And a third thing is don't prioritize social media over your relationship with God. Like, I know I'm definitely guilty of this. The first thing in the morning, I have to stop and think like, do I pray or do I go through Instagram because of your phone's right there. The temptations right there just to go on social media and make that, you know, the, the start of your day, you know, we're called to give God our first fruits, but he's our first fruits. Or is it just scrolling through our phone for a little while?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So waking up first thing in the morning, I'm praying and not that I'm posting about Brian, one of the things that I do every morning is just, I wake up and I put my hands out over my Doona Alpha, my quilts, you know, and I say, Jesus, give me a hug, give me a hug. And I just sit there for five, 10 minutes and just imagine Jesus giving me a hug. This is before I get to my social media. This is before I do anything. And the temptation is to go, my first thought is to go to my social media and to check my emails. I want if they responded to my email yet, I wonder if they, how many more likes I got in my last post. But always, always seek God first and keep your social media as well. That's a good thing to keep your phone away from you when you're praying. Put it in another room. If you have a time or if you have scripture, get an analog Bible, you know, just don't keep your phone next to you because if you're anything like me, you're going to be distracted after five minutes and then 15 minutes into your prayer you realize, oh my goodness, I prayed for five minutes and then the last 15 minutes as I've been scrolling through Facebook and I'd been before,
Speaker 2:the thing is similar to that, but don't prioritize social media over your relationship with others. We spoke about this radical sense of loneliness and that we can become so consumed in social media that we forget to have real and authentic relationships with humans that we actually see in real life. Absolutely. Because I think it's important to, you know, communication on social media is good and convenient and it's, it's really helpful when your friends go over to China and you have to get we-chat because you can't see them face to face. But then also making sure that that's not where all your relationships lie.
Speaker 3:That's right. And social media is an an instrument. It's a, it's an assistance. It's not, it's a, it's a terrible lord if we make it to our Lord, you see? And because otherwise we get trapped, we get trapped in an illusion of intimacy. We think people love us, we think we're accepted. And Ahh, affirmation becomes the likes as opposed to conversations.
Speaker 2:And I guess the fifth and final thing of how, you know, just five tips on how Catholics can use social media is to remember that everything is good in moderation, that social media isn't a bad thing. It is helpful and it's helping the world reach out to each other. And it really ought to know this. Just a personal view that it really does help our universal church because it's not a church that you see in your local community. It's one that you can see online and you can reach out to people all around the world and your friends. But then, you know, being able to recognize that it's not, everything in moderation is important. I think.
Speaker 3:Yes. And we should use our social media to influence people. We should use our social media to point to Jesus. But as you saying, it's a, sometimes we need to set boundaries. We need to set guidelines saying, Hey, I'm, you know, like even on the iPhone, I don't know about Androids, but I phone have, I'm set an amount of time screentime you know, limit your screen time, limit the time you spend and responding to messages, moderation as well with how you respond because otherwise it's a never ending cycle. Okay. So, um, I think it's so important to, everything we do in social media is an instrument. It's a gift from God. It's a gift to, to the church to reach out to people. But let's use it always, never to point to ourselves, but to look outwards, to, to be authentic, to be real to this
Speaker 2:well because they are desperate and desperate to hear and to see Jesus in, in your life and through your social media, but at the same time don't let it control you. That'd be a seven to not a master. So now we're going to interview Richie or Roscoe or here's the person that manages Catholic connect. It's quite a big Instagram and Facebook account that connects Catholics all around the world. Um, so we're getting going into that interview now with him and he's going to talk about how he uses social media to spread the good news.
Speaker 4:[inaudible]
Speaker 5:[inaudible] Roscoe, Richie, you started the Catholic connect online community. So currently on Instagram
Speaker 2:we have over 200,000 followers to Facebook. There's over 15,000 and Twitter there's over 74,000. So it's a huge community. And today we're just going to talk about why you started that, how it's so successful, I guess in terms of reaching, I think it's your age. I have a 5 million people every way. So do you want to start by maybe introducing yourself and who you are?
Speaker 6:Sure. Um, I'm Richie. Um, I'm from Texas. I'm originally from Mexico, but I right now I live in Houston, Texas, but I travel pretty much everywhere in the u s well yeah. And thank you for having me by the way.
Speaker 2:All right. Thank you so much for grades. Come on. We're really excited for this interview because you know, there's, I think a very few people in the church that have as much experience on social media maybe as you. So I guess from there, like you've got quite a massive reach. I think it's about four or five times you reach daily, the amount of people that live in my whole town. So did you set out to get that kind of response or that reach on social media?
Speaker 6:So definitely not. I was not expecting it to grow that quick, but what my, my initial goal was trying to reach the year because I saw that there was like such a huge disconnect when it came to social. The trips in the youth. And where's the youth? Well, they were in social media all the time. I mean, most kids are on social media, so how could I help them? Because what I saw was like in high school I went to pretty much a public school as my whole life and and here in the u s and when I noticed that there's so many Catholics, but they're fallen away Catholics because there's really nothing to reach out to them. And so I wanted to do something about that. So my whole idea was trying to help the youth at first and it ended up helping me a lot and then it started growing a lot and I was like, oh wow. So it's not just for the youth
Speaker 2:as well as ever. Yeah, like it has grown a look. Do you know how that happened? Like was it organic or what was kind of the turning point where it just went from me in this little idea that you had to help the youth to something so much bigger than that.
Speaker 6:So I just shared content. I honestly just shared good Catholic content and I think what happened was a, well what happens out there is that sometimes Catholic pages can either too extreme or maybe to wash down. I just keep it Catholic. Like obviously I'll put my opinion sometimes, but I always say with the church teaching, so I've never stray away from that. And I mean it works. I mean the church has the truth though. You don't have to create anything new. You do get to share it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's awesome advice that, yeah, this, the truth will kind of spread itself I guess. I love that quote. Like the lion doesn't need to be defended, like set in front, it will defend itself. And I guess that's kind of what you've seen on your social media. What kind of response have you seen through managing these social media pages?
Speaker 6:So it's funny, I actually obviously really good responses, but when it first started we started on Twitter, which most people are like shocked because they're like, oh wait, it's not Instagram. So we started on Twitter and a few months after I started it, it took a lot of time at first because I wasn't kind of like, I didn't know how to manage on everything all the time. Plus I was in school full time and I was just doing it to help people and I didn't feel anyone who was made for the first like two years, I just did it. And so not even my brothers, no one knew about it
Speaker 2:cause they sneaky. Yup.
Speaker 6:Yeah. But that was the first few years. But like the first three months that I have that account, I was wondering if it was actually like helping anyone. So I kept wondering is it actually going to help? Well is it actually helping people or am I just wasting my time? So obviously before deciding I just prayed a little bit for a few days. I prayed about that and, and then I realized like the big impact that it was having when to younger people reached out within the same week, seeing how they were like contemplating suicide and they ran into the continent. Like someone retweeted one of the tweets that we put out, which is amazingly pottery appeal and he's one of my favorite scenes. And so she was like, she's like, I had never heard about my BPO and you posted a quote about him and I started doing a little research with the pages that you share about project view. And she's like, and that changed like that literally saved me. And I was like, okay, well I'll say whoa. Like, and then the same week, another person that reaches out pretty much the same story, but this time it looks in a young person. It was like a 30 something year old woman. And that's when I noticed that our pages were actually reaching people that I wasn't expecting to reach at first. Cause I was like, I mean I didn't really expect to reach such a broad audience. And then we did. And I mean it just started growing and I was like, might as well put it on every social media and Frederick content everywhere. And that's what we've been pretty much doing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Really well, it's awesome. Did you, like you mentioned that you didn't really know what you were doing when you started out. Did you then go and like do independent research? Like did you have to study how social media works?
Speaker 6:No, not at all. I just played around with it and then I realized like people that are companies that try and like research and do all these things, find out the algorithm and the only thing behind it, you can't play around with it and see what works, what doesn't work. And people love when you're authentic, when you're not trying to like, I dunno what I think Catholic. Tonight's what's different with the first art from other one is that first of all we're always at the church. And second of all, we're always spreading news from everyone. We shared new secular news, we share, uh, church news, we share content from every single Catholic company. We don't care who it is, we'll share it. As long as it's good, why not? And so I think people really liked that. And that's the whole thing behind us. It's Kathleen connect. We just connect pathways with content like and with other Catholics. We just want to keep it simple.
Speaker 2:So good. And like, you know, also like raising up those maybe smaller social media pages that don't have the audience that you do by sharing their content. Like you're just sharing good solid truth from authentic people that just maybe need that boost as well. Like, that's so good that you're able to have that platform to share that. That's awesome.
Speaker 6:Yeah. And I love sharing things from like pre presale. We used to have such solid content that I just like, I always take time to find all of the priests and I follow them.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Not Face on Instagram. Just saying that human side of them is really lacking something that you wouldn't have seen without social media. Are there some do's and don'ts of Catholic social media?
Speaker 6:Yeah. Um, so first of all, don't be, and I'll say it nicely, don't be rude. Like no one needs that and you're not gonna bring anyone to the space. Like being, uh, I guess being mean, not me, but I want to say I think I got to keep it PG but it just be authentic. But at the same time like you don't want to have to attack people just because they don't believe the same thing. In fact, dialogue is what brings others to faith. I mean when we started exploring the differences, the similarities and like actually talk to each other and see what the truth is. You, I mean look for the truth and you'll end up Catholic. So that's really, that's what I know and I've seen it before. It's just like I don't even have to, um, I mean I just, I would say don't attack anyone, just teach them. But even like when people attack me cause I've had a lot of attacks before and by, by crazy people on Twitter maybe. But if I just ignore them, honestly, it's, it's way better just to ignore it.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Cause yeah, that was my next question was going to be like, how do you like deal with that? Cause online I guess it's easy for people to criticize anonymously. Like you don't know them, they just kind of a keyboard warrior if you will. And like, do you get a lot of that? Like is it a regular thing and are there other ways that you deal with it?
Speaker 6:Um, it's not really that regular because I don't, I mean I never put anything against the Catholic church and so really if anyone is attacking me, they're probably not Catholic. I just let it go. If you respond to someone like that, you're going to end up giving them the attention that they seek by attacking you. If you don't, they just stop attacking you. Yeah,
Speaker 2:there is kind of, you know, we're really blessed in 2019 that social media is accessible and to share our faith is something that, you know, it can be quite easy. All you have to do is post a picture of what we're doing on Sunday and we're sharing our faith. But what advice would you give to someone who wants to share their faith on social media but maybe is like a bit reluctant?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so I mean, start lightly. You don't have to go full out, but you can start posting something. Just share on thing. But what I've noticed it's cause before I didn't post that much about the faith, like on my personal profile, but then I didn't, I don't care anymore. It's just like after the first few months I was like, I really don't care until I started like what people think. And so I share a bunch of things now, but I think people, a lot of people like it because they're, they're also Catholic or Christian and then when they see you sharing stuff like that, it's like, oh wait, there's another one. There's like there's someone else like me, like, and then they see the courage that you have and then the, you kinda like encourage them to also share and then they start sharing it and it's like a rippling effect. Everyone starts doing it. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's awesome. That's, yeah, you can be like the, I guess the catalyst for change, which is awesome. Like, you know, suddenly it's not so jarring or strange for you to share your faith. That's really good advice. Just to start small and I guess, yeah, again, be authentic as well. Thank you so much for your time today rich like this has been awesome and it's so nice to kind of hear how such a successful social media go check it out. Catholic connect. Um, Kinda. It was just sad from you wanting to share the faith and just being authentic and not with an agenda or lots of research or study. Just sharing the truth from people who were speaking the truth and that's awesome.
Speaker 6:Okay. Thank you. And soon everyone will be able to see our own app that it's actually, it's a combination social media with social networking, Catholics can actually connect with their local communities and see what's happening and get involved. So check it out. It'll be available pretty soon.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I'm really excited for that one. We'll definitely keep an eye on it. It has announcements as well.
Speaker 6:[inaudible]
Speaker 2:thank you.[inaudible] no, thank you so much for coming on the show, Richie. It's been awesome and we'll definitely continue to pray for you and the Catholic connect community that it just continues to reach people and reach to their hearts as well. So thank you so much. Thank you. God bless you.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much for joining us today on the Catholic influences podcast. We hope that you've got something out of this and have learned a little bit about social media and how we can use social media as Catholics influence the world for Jesus. Please reach out to us on the fig. Social media is Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and go fully Catholic connect as well and join that community. And so next time, God bless.