“Communication comes from the same root word underlying community and communion. Human communication is the act of communing with one another, not merely the business of sending and ‘consuming’ messages.” -Steven Sherman

Looking at communication challenges while keeping Sherman’s quote in mind, the word “Communion” became broader after years of breaking bread, wine, and prayer at the Lord’s table.  I gained a new revelation on living “in communion” with everyone we meet, not just in Christ, as we go about our daily lives. Not being in true communion with Christ will cause our communion with everyone that crosses our path to experience us, instead of our Lord who lives within us.  That being said, not being in communion with Christ, on top of distant communications through the internet, social media, and smartphones, appears to have increased moral challenges.

1. Smart Phones

Smartphones’ real problem with moral communication is that people are constantly fixated on them. We live watching the screens. They can fit in our bags or pockets; we can take them most anywhere with us. This causes people to bring the internet with them into the real world and never leave it; they never “Unplug.” This allows for the issues I address below to be extended everywhere, but phones, I would say, are less of a moral challenge than what they help to facilitate.

• Social Media

Social media can be interacted with from any phone or computer in the world. These websites are free for anyone to open an account and begin communication. Social media companies allow for freedom of speech, within reason. Terroristic threats and slander can still be prosecuted in a court of law, but if there is anything we have learned, it is that humans can be very crafty with how they word threats. Most of the social media companies, and even streaming companies, might issue a ban, but freedom of speech allows people to speak out on any number of subjects with any attitude they choose. Some groups might call for treating others decently and have moderators remove them from a group, but after they have said some really hurtful stuff.

As a GenX, I remember an adolescence before social media; our communication was face-to-face. Passing notes in class, and writing rumors on the school’s bathroom stalls was our social media. This also meant there were consequences for our words. We could not communicate with the world from our mother’s basement, behind anonymous accounts and avatars. Accountability was lived in real time! Meaning, if you said something heinous about someone, they could physically walk up to you and question you about it. This element of sociology has been lost due to the ability of a bully to say anything without even a reprimand. This lack of decency has spiraled out of control. It has become such a huge issue that in 2026, a generation that grew up online, which is devoid of social skills, has caused a phrase to go viral on the internet. FAFO captures the true essence of what repercussions look like for anyone lacking the comprehension of basic moral ethics.

• The Internet

The internet is one of man’s most brilliant accomplishments and represents arguably our greatest collective technological achievement. It gives us the ability to read and view more information than we could imagine for one lifetime, but it has come with a price. The information on the internet is as malevolent as it is educational. What should be a marvelous avenue for man to evolve into greater thinkers has allowed for an enormity of humanity’s filth and refuse. Even before its release for commercial use in 1989, pornography had already been uploaded onto it.[i]

Almost everyone has heard of the “Dark Web,” the deeper parts of the web, past the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, and beyond the World Wide Web pages that we all frequent daily. The I.P. addresses shrouded in mystery intentionally. This is where the true problem exists in mankind’s great technological marvel. This is the enormous moral challenge of the internet. The ability for anonymity has allowed for true evil to be bought and sold here. Drugs, Military armaments, humans…children are all being trafficked in real time. Netflix has a show called “Cyber Bunker,” which details the operations of one of the largest Dark Web merchants.[ii] The internet’s ability for anonymous communication has allowed the darkness in man’s hearts to conceive, flourish, and profit.

It is the greatest moral challenge facing humanity today.

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Sherman, S. B. (2025). An Introduction to Philosophy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

The Cold War Bunker that Became Home to a Dark Web Crime Empire. (n.d.). Retrieved from The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/03/the-cold-war-bunker-that-became-home-to-a-dark-web-empire

The P^%$ Pioneers. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/1999/sep/30/onlinesupplement#:~:text=In%20the%201980s%2C%20the%20internet,and%20storage%20space%20they%20required.%22