Hey, I Know That Guy! We Used to Work Together

           The first meeting we had attended in our current ward happened to land on Fathers’ Day -  though I don’t recall any mention of Father’s Day whatsoever.  The two talks given seemed to focus on Social Media which I thought was a strange topic to be delivering over the pulpit on a Sunday morning. I didn’t realize that only five years later it would become a necessary tool for the missionaries.

We didn’t have social media when I was on my mission.  Facebook was out when my three boys had served their missions, but it certainly wasn’t encouraged and now the missionaries are required to have facebook accounts. We had two elders over on Saturday night and they asked if they could leave a thought before they drove away.  Their thought was on contacting others through facebook – which is what triggered the memory of our first meeting which one elder said must have been an inspired theme.

Though many churches have met as a congregation there are still a tremendous amount of people who do not attend because of age and health risks.  Thus many wards and stakes offer the option of viewing though social media.  In our ward the viewer has to belong to the ward page to click on the facebook link.  We were told that the meeting can no longer be viewed once it ends.  But I have been able to view it within an hour or so after returning home.  I think it might vanish once everyone has left the building.

Then there’s my sisters stake as well as others in the surrounding Salt Lake Valley that offer church services through YouTube.  I know my daughter-in-law had provided a three hour window before the video of the meeting was removed.  My sister hadn’t provided a time limit when she has sent videos.

There is a sacredness which could easily be desecrated by sharing on social media.  On the other hand, I also see this as a missionary tool – perhaps a stronger one than a disappearing share.  One may accidently stumble across a meeting and might find someone they know.  They may recognize my brother-in-law for example as someone they had worked with or who had taken their pictures.  That seems like it would be an effective tool for those who are curious enough to explore beyond his words and research the church and ask for the missionaries who do teach outside of the home but are able to set up virtual meetings too.

I remember having to knock on doors to find people – not the most effective way in my opinion.  Missionaries aren’t even allowed to knock on doors anymore – not even a member who has invited them over for dinner - at least in this area.  They stand outside and wait for someone to remember to open the door without the knocking reminder.

I’m grateful for the good things that can be found on social media and having it available to me.  I enjoy being able to view other wards I can’t realistically attend in person.

Servants, Masters and Manipulation

            I had graduated from high school in 1980 and had signed up for college the following year.  I did not have the internet or Google to help me with assignments.  I used whatever reference books I could find at the library.  It wasn’t until after Corey returned home from his mission that we purchased our first computer and added AOL dial-up.  It wasn’t much longer before the Google search engine was introduced.   

            I marveled at how quickly Corey could find references without ever having to leave the room.  Before that he had been a whiz at searching the card catalogues and familiarizing himself with the library as though it were his profession.  Google seemed to make life so much easier in some ways.

            I had not familiarized myself with the search engines or internet as quickly as he had.  I’m still not nearly as advanced or well rounded as he, but I have learned a lot more about how to navigate than I had just ten years ago.

            I went back to college and got my degree in accounting.  My courses were online and I was required to provide references for not only my assignments, but discussions as well. I spent more time on the internet than ever before.  I would normally turn to Google or YouTube to assist with my research.  I did not feel manipulated so much as annoyed with advertisements and pop-ups and YouTube’s suggestions of 60-minute videos on how to start my own business.  Okay, maybe they weren’t 60 minutes.  It just felt like they were as the demonstrators would prattle on and on before I had the option of clicking “skip.”

            Advertising, marketing - I didn’t even realize that whatever I might be Googling would also be advertised in my facebook newsfeed.  That was because I rarely ever looked at my newsfeed.  I would look at notifications and sometimes I would look at individual walls.  I did not make the connections until this pandemic.  I have discovered quite a lot during this pandemic—not all of it pleasant either.

            The Facebook novelty wore off about two months after I opened my account.  There was more than one time I thought about deactivating my account and had even attempted to do so at one time, but could not figure it out.  I remained on Facebook mostly to keep in touch with family members living in a different state than I.  Both Corey and my youngest son deactivated their accounts.  My sister is rarely on and my middle son is never on. 

In the beginning of the pandemic there seemed to be more posts created than what gets posted now.  That is a good thing that others have gotten on with their lives by abandoning Facebook or rely on values that cause them to realize that being on Facebook is not good for them.  There are pros and cons to the technology that we use.  One pro that I really love about Facebook is creating groups which allow sharing information with several people at once (such as church activities or family events—depending on the group).

Netflix’s Social Dilemma provides a huge amount of cons (see trailer here).  Those with ethics relate information about how things are.  They went into more detail than what I had already observed.  Good and bad, but most of it seemed to focus on the market manipulation and provided ways that we as users might protect ourselves. MIGHT.

Artificial Intelligence doesn’t know the truth.  Posts get shared and reshared and sources aren’t being checked.  Trump is itching for another civil war (which has already taken place on social media) pitting the red states against the blue.  What the hell?  We are NOT in a marriage contract.  We DON’T have to vote for a certain party.  We are allowed to vote for (or against) the issues at hand.  We even have the option of voting for a third party as I had four years ago.  The mascots of each party are the elephant (Republican) and the donkey (Democrat) as that is how someone had referred to Andrew Jackson (according to this article) and Jackson ran with it.  I think it’s now more appropriate to use for the Republicans as Donald Trump is the biggest jackass the nation has ever had in office.  Still don’t know who is responsible for having elected him in the first place.  He’s a monster who is interested only in himself—and actually so are many of his followers.

I apologize for not finding the original source

original facebook share posted by Ron Olesko