Technology & Internet

No, not that Cha-Cha!

Information is my business so I'm very wary of information that comes from unverifiable sources. I view it with the kind of suspicion reserved for "Get Rich Quick" and "Lose 30 pounds in 3 weeks" schemes. As an information seeker, I need to know where the information is coming from and who it is coming from. Helping others locate elusive information is a huge thrill for me. Sometimes the information needed is seemingly insignificant or of a sentimental value only. Other times, the information requested will have a major impact in the decisions people make. Whatever the reasons, I work hard to ensure that the information I provide is accurate, reliable, and valid. My sister-in-law told me the other day that I was her favorite search engine. She made my day!

Speaking of search engines, I tried a new one recently. You guessed it - it is called ChaCha. I know, I know, old news already! Be that as it may, I finally decided to try it. In case, you're even slower jumping on the bandwagon than I am, ChaCha is basically a text-message search engine. That's right - it's for your cellphone, not your PC. Did you get the part about a text-message search engine? You heard right. So if you don't speak text, you and I are probably better off sticking with Google.

ChaCha is proud of the fact that questions are answered by actual human beings rather than an automated service. Some questions can be answered in under a minute. Others can take longer than 10 minutes. You simply type the text of your question in either plain English or text lingo if you speak the language, and send it on its merry way to 242242 (ChaCha). As I was saying I was curious about this service so I decided to test it.

I sent in 4 different questions. I chose questions that I considered to be of varying difficulty levels. Three of the questions were answered within a minute. Of the three answers, two were correct and one was incorrect. The last question, the one that I expected would take the longest, was answered in just under 20 minutes. Surprisingly, the answer was correct - incomplete but correct.

My biggest reservation about ChaCha is that I've no idea who is answering my questions. The questions I sent weren't critical to me as I already knew the answers. But what if I didn't know the answer? What if I had a real question and the answer to that question would determine something important? Would I still go with ChaCha? Probably not! But this doesn't mean that ChaCha isn't useful. From what I've seen, ChaCha is great and there is certainly a place for such a service. However, for the important things, I need to know that my source is credible and reliable and in order to know that, I need to know who my source is.

When it comes to spiritual questions, isn't it great to know that there is a reliable source that we can go to? There is no greater testifier of truth than the Spirit. When it comes to questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we can ask friends, read literature from a variety of sources, and search for information online. We can do all these things and gain a picture of what the Church believes and teaches but to have a real testimony of the truth, we need to go to the source of all truth - our Heavenly Father and His son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. When we pray in faith to our Heavenly Father, having a sincere desire to know, He will answer. When we receive this witness of the Spirit, we can be assured that this source is one that we can trust with our hearts, minds, and souls!

The Army of Helaman is one of my favorite stories from the Book of Mormon. I am inspired by the faith and courage of the two thousand sons who went to battle to defend their families and their homes. They were young men of character and honor. We know that they were young men "who were true at all times in whatsoever they were entrusted."

As I ponder the challenges that face our sons and daughters today I can't help but think of it as a battle. It may not be a battle like the two thousand sons of the people of Ammon fought but it is a battle. This battle that our sons and daughters face today may even be far more dangerous than the one Helaman's army marched against.

Today, you who are our sons and daughters are challenged by an enemy that appears faceless and yet is everywhere. You are attacked by unindentified enemies that do not play fair or follow any rules of warfare whatsoever. You are faced with an enemy that makes full use of modern day "weapons" at their disposal to attack you day in and day out.

Obviously, I'm refering to the attacks on morality and values that you face everyday on the Internet, on television, in the movies, magazines, and many other places. I am not being melodramatic! I really do look at this as a battle, a war that is being fought for you; for your minds, hearts, and souls.

How do you fight such an enemy? You do so by becoming a modern day Army of Helaman.

You do so by looking to the two thousand stripling warrirors and their examples of valor and faith. We know from the Scriptures that they were young men of their word, that they were young men who kept the commandments of God. So the first thing that you need to do is to be sure that you are keeping the commandments that you promised to keep. Keeping the commandments helps you to be strong in the face of adversity. After all, you can't fight for the truth if you aren't living it yourself.

We are told that the Army of Helaman took their weapons of war with them. This makes sense, you don't want to march into battle without any sort of weapon. So what weapons do you have? Remember, you are a modern day Army of Helaman. Your field of battle is the Internet. At least, that's the one where most of the attacks are coming today. Your weapons are the Scriptures and the teachings of the modern day prophets. Your weapons are your testimonies of the Savior and his gospel. Your weapons are the same tools that they enemy is using in his fight to win you over.

The enemy is not the only one with access to modern technology. You do too. Use it for good. When the enemy uses the Internet to spread evil, you can use it to spread the word and will of our Lord. You can combat the rise of those who would argue that there is no God, by using the Internet and other kinds of modern technology to tell everyone that you know God lives.

Finally, we are told in the Scriptures that the two thousand young men chose Helaman to be their leader. They chose to follow a leader who they knew and trusted. They chose to follow a leader who they knew was a man of God. You too, as a modern Army of Helaman, can choose to follow a leader that you trust. You can choose to follow a leader that is a man of God. President Gordon B. Hinckley is such a leader. He is a prophet of God. He is someone you can all trust. Listen to him, follow his counsel. He loves you. I've heard him speak on a number of occasions and I've always felt the love he has for all of us and especially for you, the youth of the Church.

I pray that each of you, as a young son or daughter of God, realizes how much he loves and values you. I pray that each of you recognizes the potential you all have to become a mighty modern day Army of Helaman.

If you're a teenager you probably have a MySpace account. These social networking sites are so popular with teens today. In fact, with the exception of a handful of sites, most of these social networking sites are aimed at teenagers and young adults.

MySpace was featured heavily in news reports across the country some time ago amidst concerns of inappropriate access and other related charges. I did a quick search and pulled up this article about the dangers of MySpace reported on KSL.com in Utah in February 2006. It may be a year and a half later but the same issues and concerns continue today, at least for me.

As a mother of teenagers who are also MySpace users I'd like to speak directly to all teenagers. Please heed the counsel of your parents and leaders. There is a real danger lurking online. I'm not just talking about the potential danger of abduction and molestation that can happen if you share personal information about yourself. I'm not just talking about the dangers of identity theft that has already put a large number of innocent people at risk. These are real threats and you should be concerned about them.

The danger that I want to address is not as obvious. It is the slow but sure poisoning of your mind and Spirit. I've seen the kind of content that is available on some MySpace sites. I know that there is nothing illegal about the content or the images. However, a lot of them are very suggestive and the language can be highly offensive. When such content is constantly in your face you can't help but think about it and see it in your mind's eye, even when you don't want to.

You are all special to the Lord. He expects you to use the body and the mind he gave you wisely. When your mind is filled with unworthy thoughts and images it is going to be really hard to feel the prompting of the spirit. Elder Rulon G. Craven of the Seventy said, "Our mind, throughout the day, is continually active. We choose the avenues of thought that our mind travels. Allowing worldly thoughts to enter your mind can lead to unrighteous acts. As we travel the highways of life, our physical senses are continually bombarded with billboards, posters, magazines, videos, movies, etc., that entice and tempt the mind and, if allowed, create mental pictures that are not becoming to a Latter-day Saint. When evil thoughts arise—Stop! Think! Control your mind! Visualize a large EXIT sign in your mind’s eye. Immediately change your thoughts. Get off of that avenue of thinking."

I know that you can password protect your site and you can control who has access it. This is good. I hope that one of the friends you invite to your network is your mom or dad or another trusted family member. If you are going to continue using MySpace be smart about it. Invite only those friends that you know and trust to be in your network. Do not allow postings that are offensive or rude. Tell your network of friends that you will not allow swearing and any deragotory remarks. Under no circumstances at all should you allow suggestive pictures to be posted on your site. It is demoralizing and unworthy of you and the friend who sent it!

As a mother I plead with all of you to stay far away from anything that can poison your minds. If you have time please read this excellent talk by President Boyd K. Packer where he counseled all youth saying that "you must be on guard."

As I've said before and will probably say again and again, there is nothing inherently evil or wrong about the Internet. It is only when it is misused for evil purposes that it becomes a problem. There is nothing inherently wrong with social networking. It is how we use them that it becomes either a tool for good or for bad.

Let me suggest some ways that you as a youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can use this tool for good. Why not start a MySpace network of friends to talk about ideas for Young Men and Young Women activities? Why not start a network of MySpace friends where you can encourage other youth to reach out to nonmember teens in your schools and communities? Why not start a network of MySpace friends where you and other LDS youth from all over the world can share your testimonies of the gospel? Perhaps we already have such networks of friends on MySpace today. If so, that is wonderful but you can still start one if you want to.

I want to say to all of you that we love you. As mothers and fathers we are so proud of you. We know what you are facing and we know that you can be strong. We know that you are the future and we look forward to seeing all of you achieve the potential that we all see in you. We look forward to seeing you fully utilize the talents and the intellect our Lord blessed you with to serve him and your fellow man.

Yesterday my husband and I recommitted ourselves to reading the Book of Mormon again from beginning to end. We've given ourselves until December 31st of this year, so we have a little over two months to do it. Remember that challenge from President Hinckley in 2005 to read or re-read the Book of Mormon before the end of that year? Well, we thought we would try that again this year. I can't think of a better way to say goodbye to 2007.

Why am I posting about scripture reading in the technology category? Because I want to tell you that if you are a teen that prefers to read online text rather than print, then you are in luck. The Scriptures - Internet Edition is available here http://scriptures.lds.org/. The Old and New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price are all available along with study helps.

I'd like to suggest a couple of ways for you to utilize this wonderful resource: Make the Scriptures Page your homepage. This ensures that the scriptural page is the first thing you see when your computer boots up. To change your homepage, go to Tools, click on Internet Options, look for the tab that says Homepage, then copy and paste the URL from the Scriptures Page, hit save and you're done. Personally, I can't think of a better site to greet me when my computer loads up.

Now that you've set the Scriptures Page as your homepage, why not commit to reading a chapter or selection of verses every day. If the chapters are extra long, break it up and do it in two or three sessions. The most important thing is that you are reading and studying your scriptures. As you read, take time also to ponder and pray about what you've read. Think about it as a spiritual boost to get your day started. Tell yourself that you will not navigate away from the homepage until you've read from the Word, no matter how rushed you think you are.

Once you get into this habit, try challenging yourself to read a couple of verses each time you log on to your computer. I log onto my computer at least three different times during the day: once early in the morning, then again sometime between helping with homework and cooking dinner, and once more before I go to bed. That means that if I follow my plan I will have read my scriptures at least three times during the day.

I can think of two ways our lives will be blessed if we read our scriptures faithfully throughout the day. First, we will be spiritually uplifted throughout the whole day. This better prepares us to deal with the daily grind of the world that tends to weigh on us and drag us down. Second, frequent reading throughout the day will help us reach our goals of reading all the scriptures.

The online scriptures should by no means replace your print copy. It is just another resource that you can use in addition to what you've always used.

The scriptures provide us with ample opportunity to find out for ourselves what the Lord wants for each of us. The counsels, commandments, and promised blessings contained in the scriptures are meant for all of us who have chosen to follow our Lord and Savior. May I ask one more favor of you? Share your scriptures with a friend. Send them the link to the Internet edition of the scriptures.

As a teenager, you are at the crossroads of your life. The decisions you make now will impact the rest of your life. The decisions you make today will determine the man or the woman you will become. I pray that one of the decisions you make today is to take full advantage of the resources available to you to read and study the scriptures. I hope that you decide that you will start today to become the kind of man or woman who seeks the Lord first.

Mathew 6:33 "But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."