The Church provides good sources of information on the internet, while technologies continue to grow rapidly. The church widens its distribution of information through Social Media (an interactive website. eg - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Multiply, Hashtags, g+, Digg, etc.).
I would like to give some of the known media bases on users and information from local televisions and radios. The church uses YouTube for Video presentations from our leaders who address important words or teachings in our lives. There are also Videos taken from scriptures like the life of Jesus Christ and Mormon Messages from our apostles and prophets.
Be aware that this video streaming media don’t have any control over its users. There are also other videos that were posted by other users from around the world which are not appropriate to our standards (Pornographies, other videos, news, or rumors that lead us away from the teachings of the church.)
Facebook is one of the largest social media and is famous for its Apps and interactive interface (like buttons, comments, and chats). The church provides a Facebook page or accounts for us to know, and update Church News and Messages from our Leaders.
Gmail was also notorious as the largest email storage and easy to use owned by Google Company. Using GMAIL also gives you direct access to its sister websites like YouTube, G+, Blogger, Picasa, etc. So when using Gmail please be careful in sending or adding more of your information online that leads to hacking or Spamming your account. My Gmail account was registered in 2003 until this day I love this account for I use my whole name on it. I know that using this account gives me access to other sites just as I said. I start using Blogger and Put pictures and information about My Online Collections. But I didn’t realize that it will be spammed. I include my email address in my blog under the Contact Me page and invite people to reply to my post. But the case is different, instead of replying to my blog they send annoying messages that viruses were attached, some were links to inappropriate sites and others will pop-up programs and products that I am not interested in. I try to delete every message but they won’t stop sending messages in my Gmail Inbox account. I almost got 2M letters unread in my Inbox and 3-5% of it is important. The Good thing is Google team knows that some senders are not real people, so they generate a Warning Message before opening that allows me to mark it as Spam or Not Spam. But it is too late. My Gmail account was already known on the entire web, the only thing that I can do is to delete it manually.
Our lives are like Walking Social Media or Email Inboxes. We didn’t realize that most of our actions maybe it’s not a bad intention but if we are not careful it will lead us away from grabbing and reading all spam in the world. We must be cautious about our actions that destroy our name like my email that I use my full name on it. But not just our name, but as Christians also who take Christ's name to the entire society. We know that Christ will forgive but we have to delete all of our mistakes manually. I only hope that the lesson I experienced will give us an understanding of our spiritual media. Use the offline media that didn’t spam you. Like their message and send it to others and apply it to our lives. We have a lot of friends in our offline spiritual media like Nephi, Mosiah, Moses, Joseph, and other prophets who had posted a lot of good lessons and news for our days. We don’t need spam in this world, we need peace and spiritual nourishment.
The church provided us an account for us to update our information for the Church Statistics. I am sure not all of us are using LDS Accounts. But this account is perfect rather than using media that are of no worth in our lives. Your LDS account was also built to your FamilySearch account which enables you to update and submit family members or ancestors that need temple ordinance. Please use it.
- Jerry Bustillo