Facebook and MySpace can lead children to commit suicide, warns Archbishop Nichols

Websites such as Facebook and MySpace encourage teenagers to view friendship as a "commodity" and are leading them to suicide, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has warned.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols said the sites are leading teenagers to build "transient relationships" which leave them unable to cope when their social networks collapse. He said the internet and mobile phones were "dehumanising" community life. His comments follow the death of 15-year-old schoolgirl who took a fatal overdose of painkillers last week after being bullied on Bebo, another networking site.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the Archbishop of Westminster also voiced his concerns about the loss of loyalty and the rise of individualism in British society which he said threatened to undermine communities. He picked out footballers for acting like "mercenaries" and expressed his fears over moves to relax laws on assisted suicide. He said that relationships are already being weakened by the decline in face-to-face meetings and conversations over the phone.

"I think there's a worry that an excessive use or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we're losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that's necessary for living together and building a community. "We're losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person's mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point.

"Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together." The archbishop blamed social network sites for leaving children with impoverished friendships. ." .

>There is very good rock music out today

There's good jazz too but
everything is Balkanized.
There isn't "culture"

we all belong to,
things we all share. There's only
this group of friends or

that group of friends and
everyone exists within
their group, not culture.

Sure there's good stuff but
it doesn't shape or create
a better culture

it just satisfies
this or that group. I'm afraid
this is the future.

No culture at all,
commercial demographics
will shape everything.

There is very good rock music out today.

Beg to disagree with you; I'll let 'time' be the judge. Name your favorite group, buy a couple albums - then in 5 years see if anyone has heard of them; or if the group has a hit on the radio. Hootie and the who? Pearl Jam - what's that? Blink 1-something 2? I could go on; but you get the idea.

Darius Rucker (Hootie) had two number one country songs last year.

Pearl Jam was atop the Modern Rock Chart in 2006 when they released their last album with Worldwide Suicide, the album made it to #2. They have a new album out in the fall and a Tour. The announced dates are either festival headliner gigs or arenas.

But bands like that aren't really what I'm thinking of even though I think Pearl Jam has remained pretty relevant for a long time.

I was thinking more of bands like Wilco (This by the way is an awesome video which highlights Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom). 5 years ago they were releasing A Ghost is Born. It was their first debut inside the top 10 and they won two grammy's for it. This year they released another album, Wilco (the album), it has sold decently well and got their typical excellent reviews.

They are never going to sell as well as some bands that I will agree are awful but pushed by corporate radio (Nickelback). That has nothing to do with quality though.

Radiohead officially became the best thing ever according to some in 1997 when they released OK Computer, which Pitchfork declared the best album of the 90's in 2003. Last year they managed to self release the also highly acclaimed In Rainbows. Even though the initial release was digital and for however much you wanted to pay (including free), the physical release still went to #1 a few months later.

How these albums will be viewed in 15-20 years is anyone's guess, but they are definitely still good today.

On the more commercial side, The Foo Fighters are releasing both mainstream and quality rock.

Other bands out today worth a listen, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, Anything Jack White touches, in this case The Raconteurs

They aren't as big as the bands you mentioned earlier, but they have also come along at a very different time when rock music isn't the dominant genre and radio has changed at least the way I see it.

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