Social Media

"Arguments about whether new forms of sharing or collaboration are, on balance, good or bad reveal more about the speaker than the subject. . . . Societies before and after revolution are too different to be readily compared; it's simple to say that society was transformed by the printing press or the telegraph, but harder to claim that it was made better."
- Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody (pp. 297-298, emphasis added)

People are meant to work together in groups.  Groups are the backbone of a capitalist society.  It is human nature to want to be around and communicate with other people, at least sometimes.  Despite technological advances that allow effective long-range communication, people continue to travel long distances so that they can physically be with those with whom they communicate.  Being in a group can give one a sense of belonging, and groups can easily accomplish tasks that would be impossible for a single individual.

There are elements of our society that make it difficult to form groups.  We drive instead of walk, so we don't walk and talk with people we meet as we run errands.  In many households, both parents work, so neither parent has much time for socializing.  Many can't afford the time or the money it would take to meet with a group or to manage a group's resources.  Some have the time, but they find ways to entertain themselves with television or video games instead of relying on human interaction.  Many have a hard time finding people with similar interests.

Social media offers some solutions to these problems.  Social media makes it easy to form groups, with very little costs in terms of time and money.  Using sites like Facebook, Pinterest, or Meetup, people can easily find people with similar interests.  Despite popular belief, use of online social media tends to increase face-to-face socialization rather than decrease it.  Social media has given us a new way to form groups more easily than ever before.  But, as Shirky says in the quote above, society has been so transformed by social media that it can't be argued that society has truly been made better by social media.  While social media offers solutions to some of today's problems, it is impossible to say whether or not the pros outweigh the cons.

Computers in the Church

"The Lord's plan is to advance ever more rapidly His word and His works.  These buildings have been built to take advantage of the wonderful and miraculous technology that will allow the university and Church to reach the hearts and minds of members and friends across the world."
- President Henry B. Eyring

We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are a record-keeping people.  We believe in documenting everything, for "whatsoever [we] record on earth shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever [we] do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven" (Doctrine and Covenants 128:8).  We have records for family history, personal saving ordinances, patriarchal blessings, general conference addresses, finances, member records, ward and stake statistics, etc.  The Church as an organization could not have become what it is today without computers to maintain, access, modify, and append to this data.

Technology and Religion

"Science without religion is lame.  Religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein

As a Christian, I have always been taught to "live in the world, but not of the world."  It is important to not conform to the weaknesses of the world around us.  The Epistle of James teaches that a "true Christian" remains "unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).  To keep ourselves unspotted, however, it is not necessary to shun science and technology.  God's work and glory is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39), and He will use a variety of means to complete His work.  While  technologies such as television and the internet can be used to transmit smut and filth into our homes, they can also be used to broadcast the words of God's servants to the world.  God also uses the internet to help people connect with their families and their ancestors, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Elijah (see Malachi 4:5-6).  Technology is not of itself good or bad; it is how we use it that makes it one or the other.

Software Patents

"In the electronics industry, patents are of no value whatsoever in spurring research and development."
- Vice President of Intel Corporation, Business Week, 11 May 1981

A software patent is a set of rights given to the creator of software that disallows anyone else to make, use, sell, or trade software without permission from the patent holder.  According to United States patent law, you can't patent a mathematical formula or an abstract idea, but you can patent a "practical application of a computer-related invention" (Tyser).  How, then, does Google have a patent for a variation of the abstract idea of a linked list? (See http://www.google.com/patents/US7028023.) Perhaps software patent laws in the United States are not as well-defined as they seem to be.  We should either define the laws more strictly or abolish software patents entirely.