• Home
• /
• Opinion

Pope joins social media bandwagon

Within 12 hours of joining Instagram, the pontiff hit a record one million followers.

While Selena Gomez may be the 'Instagram Queen' with 71 million followers, Pope Francis made a thrilling debut on the photo-sharing platform, and may soon be on his way to becoming 'King'.
Within 12 hours of joining Instagram, the pontiff hit a record one million followers. That's the fastest any user has ever achieved on Instagram. His first post though wasn't a selfie, or his breakfast, or his pet (if he has one). It was an image of him praying accompanied by a caption that read "Pray for me" in nine different languages.
The Vatican's social media strategy shows that the Pope is striving to connect to a wider audience, particularly the hashtag-savvy younger generation, one picture at a time. What's more significant is that this comes at a time when Europe is grappling with a migrant crisis, rising Islamophobia, and its internal borders are under tight scrutiny.
The Pope has always been the one to speak in favour of migrants. He has time and again decried the indifference shown by Europeans to migrants and refugees, which arises mainly out of fear. One only hopes the new tool helps allay these fears faster. Francis wasn't always a social media fan. Last year, he warned youngsters of social media overuse. He mentioned that a society dominated by Internet can substitute real human relationships with virtual ones, a syndrome he referred to as "mental pollution". He was especially concerned with the fact that people can be 'friended' and 'defriended' at the click of a button. Coming from a 79-year-old, such a drastic change of thought deserves applause. This is a lesson in acceptability and adaptability - of ideas, mindsets, and changing times.