What I spoke about was the influence of media. I wasn't able to quite express all I wanted to so here we go for Monday Musings.
I look at the media we consume much like food. We even use the same metaphors (consume). There is a vast amount of junk food on the internet. Media full of intellectual empty calories. The stuff that is out there is entertaining, fun and inviting, but leaves you feeling bloated and ultimately unsatisfied. There is also a fair array of toxic and poisonous stuff out there, or maybe it's just rancid, spoiled and rotten. Anyway, people can choose to consume media that if it were food would kill us. Having said this I actually believe that people have a right to say what they want, just please respect my right not to partake.
Most importantly, though, there is literally a feast laid out of intellectual delights. There are just so many good things available for us. I don't mean just the great things the LDS church or other churches produce, but the simply amazing free resources that are available. Documentaries, classes, books, literature, science, history. There is a mountain of good media available. Online, through Cable and Satellite and free over the airwaves.
The Doctrine and Covenants in Section 88:78-80 teach us to learn all we can:
From http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/88
78 Teach ye diligently and my agrace shall attend you, that you may be binstructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in aheaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must bshortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the cnations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a dknowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to amagnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the bmission with which I have commissioned you.If we are truly to fill our missions and magnify our calling....to truly fulfill our purpose on earth we should be filling our minds with a knowledge of our world. To do this we must seek learning out of the best books
From http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/88
118 And as all have not afaith, seek ye diligently and bteach one another words of cwisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best dbooks words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.Our faith and our study help us to gain the wisdom we need to fulfill our purpose. When we study the scriptures, and modern prophets as the first foundation of our understanding of the world then all the other things we learn are understood through the lens of the gospel. This allows us to know both what is good for us and what we should avoid as well as how to use what we experience for our good. The concern then becomes less what media I am consuming and more how I am choosing to integrate it into my life. Two people may read the same thing, watch the same movie, or hear the same discourse and one may choose to take offense and leave behind the fellowship of Christ, and another may choose to draw closer.
As we continue this process the time we will by our own nature and choices leave aside the poisonous and toxic, we will for the most part avoid the junk food of the media world and will consume those things that enrich our lives and fill our souls and we will be come filled with light. We can see also that the time of merely, passively consuming media is changing rapidly into a world where each of us creates our own media to contribute to the feast. The choices about what kind of media we consume will also affect the types of media we create.
I know that this post has gotten rather long and also rather verbose, that happens, but I guess since no one reads this anyway it doesn't matter.
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