It's all connected

The LDS church has a great appreciation for technology and has taken full advantage of it.  In the Church technology can impact eternity in its ability to aid in family history work, missionary work, and providing resources to families and individuals in their efforts to learn about the Gospel.  I don't think we truly realize the spiritual impact technology has on our lives.  Whether enabling us to find deceased persons that can benefit from the ordinances of the Gospel or just burning time on the internet, our use of technology has eternal significance.  Technology has ruined the lives of some and can interfere in our relationships with others.  Those addicted to pornography grapple with the ease of access technology provides and also teeter on the brink of spiritual bankruptcy.  Even something as simple as surfing the internet can take time away from those things that matter most.  Thinking of technology like this prompts me to consider how I use it and what I am getting out of it spiritually.

Think for yourself!

We live in a world permeated with computers that help us think, make decisions, and solve problems.  We can't always trust computers though.  For example, Terry Wells ran into a virus that could have cost her $200 if she had trusted what the computer was telling her.  Admittedly, blatant and obvious hacking schemes are easy to ward off but I fear that we are letting computers do too much of our thinking.  Are we taking everything we read as the truth or are we engaging it and thinking critically?  With so much information available it is easy to lose our critical thinking abilities.  If we allow information to come into our brain unchallenged we are opening ourselves up to misdirection and empty minds.  Sometimes we need to take a minute to process what we're consuming to see if it's worthwhile or even correct.  Step away from the computer every now and again and think for yourself.  Don't worry, your PC won't be offended.

Is this post even high quality?

Quality of information is always better than quantity.  In an article discussing technology's future impact on education the claim is made that a high quality of information shared between an educational team will make the biggest impact on the learning experience.  When we are able to share quality information we are then able to communicate effectively.  However, sharing quality information can be a difficult task.  Quality demands time and time is a precious commodity.  We live in a world of instant communication where speed is paramount.  Through texts and comments we leave shortened messages in an effort to communicate yet limit ourselves to trite abbreviations.  We are so obsessed with time that even the phrase "OK" must be shortened to merely "k."  When we put just a few more seconds of thought into what we share real communication can begin.  Take time for quality.

What is the R-Word?

I've been following the ongoing debate concerning the Washington Redskins changing their name.  In reading this article commenting on Commissioner Goodell's defense of the name and this accompanying article citing support for the Redskin name I thought of the varying orders of ignorance.  This situation shows what I feel is an ignorance towards an important issue for many Native Americans. People do not even know that they are being offensive (they don't know what they don't know) when using and supporting the term "redskin" and at the very least don't feel that's it's a big deal to use it.  Somehow ignorance still reigns supreme when it comes to this and other racially insensitive references to Native Americans.  Some claim this issue as another example of American over-sensitivity when in reality it is an example of the continued oppression of the Native voice.

You Don't Need a Bigger Truck

Dallin H. Oaks, in a talk entitled "Focus and Priorities," uses a story about two men selling watermelons to caution us that having more information available is not always a good thing.  His remarks got me thinking that the wealth of information today has actually made us less educated than before.  I consider education as the process of internalizing information and skills in such a way that they can easily be recalled and used in the future.  With that definition in mind it seems obvious to me that many people are less educated than before the so-called "age of information."  Rarely does anyone really internalize information anymore preferring instead to look it up once, use it, forget it, and then repeat the cycle again when needed.  In my opinion, that is not becoming more educated and yet so many people convince themselves that they are smarter because of it.

A New Topic

This semester I'm taking a course entitled "Ethics in Computer Science" so that's pretty exciting.  So far I've really enjoyed the things that have been shared and the discussions in class.  As part of that I'll be required to write blog posts occasionally so if there are random-ish posts about a reading or something that seemed a little more structured than my normal ramblings, they will probably be tagged with "CS404."  I'm excited about that because I've wanted to write more on here anyways.  Should be fun!