"I raise an apostolic voice of warning about the potentially stifling, suffocating, suppressing, and constraining impact of some kinds of cyberspace interactions and experiences upon our souls... I plead with you to beware of the sense-dulling and spiritually destructive influence of cyberspace technologies...
...If the adversary cannot entice us to misuse our physical bodies, then one of his most potent tactics is to beguile you and me as embodied spirits to disconnect gradually and physically from things as they really are. In essence, he encourages us to think and act as if we were in our premortal, unembodied state. And, if we let him, he can cunningly employ some aspects of modern technology to accomplish his purposes.
Please be careful of becoming so immersed and engrossed in pixels, texting, earbuds, twittering, online social networking, and potentially addictive uses of media and the Internet that you fail to recognize the importance of your physical body and miss the richness of person-to-person communication..."
Did you guys get that?! That's EXACTLY what was happening to me. Since Satan could not get me to misuse my body in physical ways... he got me to misuse my body by NOT USING IT AT ALL.
Remember what I said earlier? Mindless drone? Yeah.
Now I know that this is sounding a lot like one of my most popular posts from a while back called, "Why I deleted Facebook & Instagram."
Elder Bednar does kind of sound like "social media is evil get rid of it"... but that is not what he's trying to say. In fact, last year, Elder Bednar urged us to do the exact opposite.
If you delete your social media accounts, do you know what that means? That means there is one less good person, sharing good things.. on social media. Elder Bednar asked us "To Sweep the Earth as With a Flood" and #sharegoodness all over social media. Rather than become hermits and shy away from the social world.. use it! Use it to uplift and help others.
HOWEVER.
There's still the aspect of how much time we spend online.
A few weeks ago, after realizing that once again I was addicted to my phone... I did not delete my social media accounts. Instead, I just deleted the apps off of my phone.
Since then, I have done so much better. I find that without the crippling effect of social media on my phone I have been able to do so much! It seems like there is so much time in a day now..
I am able to get my house chores done.. the dishes don't get piled up! Grant actually gets played with! He has learned to count to 10 (minus the numbers 5 and 8 ), and knows some of his ABC's. I have learned about a million new things about my camera. I've started writing a children's book. The list goes on and on!
The point is.. I feel like I am actually living again.
I will never allow social media to be on my phone ever again. I'm not strong enough. I'm not disciplined enough to handle that. So to prevent me from becoming a mindless drone again, it's staying off my phone.
Join me! Get off your phones. Delete those apps. Live your life! Go ACTUALLY make friends in person.. don't "request them" and be "friends" and never acutally meet them! I've got a list of a few people who I am "friends" with, but I've never actually met them or talked to them in person. (These are not strangers. I know they exist. I know of them. They are people from my hometown or that really cool sister who always has the best comments in Relief Society..etc) So next time I see these people I am going to make an effort to ACTUALLY BE THEIR FRIEND! Talk to them! Say Hi! Shake their hand!
You know??
Man. The world is getting crazy right??
-C
What are you going to do?
