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A New Gaze: Paying Attention in the Age of Clickbait
Pope Leo XIV has chosen the theme for the 61st World Communications Day, to be celebrated in 2027: an invitation to rediscover attention as an act of love and generosity. In a digital culture shaped by immediacy and superficial judgements, communication calls us to draw closer to others, to listen and to recognise their dignity. The task is not to capture attention, but to safeguard it as a precious resource for human relationships.
The following is the theme chosen by the Holy Father Leo XIV for the 61st World Day of Social Communications, to be celebrated in 2027:
“A New Gaze: Paying Attention in the Age of Clickbait”
The attention economy, with its struggle for a few moments of interest amid the rapid and endless flow of content, is transforming not only our cognitive abilities but also the depth of our interpersonal communication.
We are called to a conversion of our gaze: to look again, with attention and with love. Only in this way will we be able to see the world, others, and even ourselves, as Christ sees us: called by name and loved. Our communication changes when our gaze chooses to encounter others rather than judge them.
The lack of genuine attention, fueled by digital culture, has accustomed us to a routine of rapid reactions, to superficial relationships, and to the ease with which we label and reject others. Yet attention is a precious form of generosity: the word “attention” comes from ad-tendere — to reach out toward the other and toward the truth. Christian communication can rediscover attention as both a gift and a way of seeing — the gaze of Jesus, who saw and allowed himself to be touched.
Communicating is not about capturing attention, nor about selling it, but about safeguarding it as a precious resource for relationships. To communicate in the age of “clickbait,” we are called to “pay attention” and to rediscover a genuinely healthy attention (cf. MH 146). Communication is not just about words, it involves the entire person and asks us to look, hear and feel again in order to answer Christ’s call.
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