Jul

18

When I was a very young kid TV programs were already stealing a lot of people’s time. However, at that time, in Italy at least, we only had a few channels to choose from and not all of them were really interesting.

By the time I was a teenager, however, multiple channels started to appear and TV “consumption” started growing a lot among people. I was blessed by a mother who taught me how to avoid wasting time with TV. Because of that, I had time to read and think (yes, think, something that is hard to do when we watch stupid TV programs where in the background there are people laughing to make sure you think it is a actually funny).

I think that I became a member of the LDS or Mormon Church because I was not watching TV, but I was reading a lot and thinking, and experimenting. Because of that I was not so influenced by the common culture and fads, and I grew up with a freer spirit.

I always tell my children to avoid wasting their time with TV or video games or useless videos on youtube.

However, the Internet can be used positively, and differently from the TV, can allow participation and sharing, and not only passive “absorption” or “consumption”.

This is the point made by a recent blog on LDS Media Talk. They ask: do we have time to blog (and share our beliefs online)? Yes we have.

The proof? Here you go (quoting from LDS Media Talk):

Clay Shirky estimates that 100 million hours have collectively gone into Wikipedia. He compares that to 200 billion hours of watching TV each year in the U.S. alone–the equivalent of 2,000 Wikipedia projects a year. We spend 100 million hours in the USA every weekend watching just the advertisements–that would permit the creation of an entire Wikipedia in just one weekend if we just skipped the ads!

His point is that people have the time, but they waste it watching TV. How you use your time is a choice: good, better, or best.

So, we have the time, but we, member of the Church, waste a lot of time in passive entertainment or watching the wrong kind of things on the Internet.

So, since you feel attracted by the Internet, why you do not use it for a good purpose? I have a personal opinion that since it is almost impossible in our modern society to avoid using the Internet, if we use it for a good cause we can not only do good, but also better protect us from the temptation of using it for the wrong purpose.

In any case, these are the videos from Clay Shirky. I know that it is a little passive to watch them, but it is for a good cause….

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