learning to manage media is an important part of our day to day living
MEDIA: FRIEND OR FOE
MEDIA: FRIEND OR FOE
Presented at the Calgary South Stake Man to Man Night November 2006
Stephen D. ZoBell, PhD
Recently, I have been studying what the Apostles have
said in their General Conference addresses regarding the Plan of
Salvation. Their teachings verify over
and over the truth of the great and wonderful plan. They inform us that prior to being on this
earth we (you and I) lived in a premortal existence with Heavenly Parents. There we grew and developed and chose to come
to this earth where we could obtain a body and spend our time planning,
properly preparing our worthiness to return home to Heavenly Father. I, personally, have no memory of the
premortal life. But if one or more
Apostles have said it, then I take it to be an eternal truth. In my heart, I am grateful for the Savior’s
role in the plan of salvation, for it has been through His goodness and mercy
that I have anything of value in my life.
And by value I mean the gospel, family, opportunities and
challenges. I believe that there is not
only a general plan of salvation, but I can’t escape the notion that each one
of us has a specific plan in place that fits each one of us in a unique and
personal way. I believe that each one of
us has purpose and divine reasons to be here on this earth.
When I was young my grandfather took me into one of
the grain fields of my father’s farm and asked the question: if you
plant wheat what will you harvest? I
thought this was a trick question. Wheat?
I offered. Exactly, said my grandfather. If
you plant wheat you reap a harvest of wheat. I couldn’t believe I passed the test. Then another question from this aged man of
wisdom. If you see wheat in a field, what was planted? Hmm, I thought, could this be his trick
question? Wheat? I offered again. Exactly.
Then my grandfather summarized: If you plant wheat you get wheat. If you plant weeds you get weeds. And
then he directed me to remember that lesson.
The media provides a mechanism to plant seeds in our
mind. Those seeds will sprout and grow
and then we will, in later months, years or decades, reap the harvest of those
seeds that we either planted, or allowed to be planted in our souls. If you plant wholesome seeds you will reap
wholesome results in the future. If the
seeds you plant in your mind are unwholesome, the results will be
unwholesome. This is known as the law of
the harvest. Paul said: in the book of
Galtians Gal. 6: 7-9
Be not deceived
God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap
So, the general plan of salvation is designed to hold
us responsible for our own futures. It
seems we are placed on earth to see, in our specific plan, if we will plant wholesome and useful
seeds, so that we can reap wholesome and useful results as the years and decades
go by. Media plays a huge role in this
experience of life. We are surrounded by
various forms of media: TV, DVD’s,
movies, internet, music, texting, magazines, books, computer games, e-mail, chat rooms,
cell phones and on and on. They are all
‘seed planting’ devices.
So let’s address the question: media, friend or foe? I submit to you that the media, in and of
itself as a tool designed to be a carrier or of information, is neutral. It’s what we do with this tool of media, as a
seed planting device, that makes its application either helpful or harmful. We decide by our choosing, where we place our
focus, whether the media is a friend or a foe.
In my profession, which is that of a psychologist, we
categorize problems that people struggle with.
Functional/mild/moderate/severe.
These categories help us to know the seriousness of our problems. So, either a person is healthy and
functioning well, or they have a mild problem or they have a moderate problem
or they have a severe problem. For the rest
of my time I would like to review the concept of media in the light of each one
of these categories.
The healthy use of media would mean that you are using
TV, computers, books, phones/devices, texting, e-mail, internet, magazines and
the like, in order to help you to progress along your personal plan of
salvation. Remember, you came here from
the premortal life to serve specific purposes and to choose your way back to
the highest level in the next life. In the Book of Abraham (3:25) we learn that in the premortal life, in the
councils being held about our future, the design was to put each of us through
a testing ground: And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever
the Lord their God shall command them;
If you use
media wisely, you will plant seeds in your mind and in your soul that promote your education, your church activities, your Duty to God awards, your youth awards, your service to others, your talents and abilities, your family
involvements and service that you can offer to those around you. Media would be used to gather constructive
information, information that could assist you with your education, help prepare you for your potential
career path, service opportunities, Church youth involvements, musical talents, exercise,
nutrition, Priesthood responsibilities, to do genealogical research, temple work, and to help with
accounting and monetary issues. I
appreciate the benefits that come to me through the media. In the past month I used the internet to find
when the Baton Rouge Regina
The use of media can become a problem when it
distracts us from continuing with our eternal purposes in life. It is a problem when the use of media starts
taking you away from concrete reality and moves you towards fantasy. Or, when it takes you off course into activities that are less helpful. Remember,
we came from the premortal existence to fulfill our purposes and missions that
will help us to gain the highest levels in the next life. Mild problems with media can be
annoying. They can cause mild
distractions to the responsibilities that you have to be a good student, to be
a contributing Quorum member, to be participating in family living, to be of
service to others, to practice your lessons for ‘next life’ preparation. These media distractions can be annoying to
yourself and your family. Hey were trying to start family home evening---and
you shout out just a minute as you try
to finish the last part of your computer game.
Or you get caught up in a movie and forget to get that last math
assignment completed. You may be doing
well with a musical instrument, with an athletic team, in school work, in your
youth awards, with your Quorum or in the temple, but without a mild media problem you could do
much better. Your growth is a bit
stifled but you are still fairly productive.
If you have a mild problem with media, it is likely that your
patriarchal blessing, the Church commandments, family involvement and personal
development are all still important to you.
They are just less important than they could be. If you have a mild problem with electronic or
other types of media then work with your parents, set goals and get it
corrected.
With a moderate media problem you should start getting
concerned. This is when you use media,
and particularly electronic media such as video games, computer games, DVD’s,
movies, internet, texting, chat rooms and the like to start escaping the
responsibility that you have in getting through this earth life
experience. Instead of doing your
homework you watch TV. Instead of
practicing your music or putting effort into athletics you play video
games. Instead of going to activity night,
getting involved in Church youth programs or doing your ministering responsibilities,
you indulge in electronic media. In stead of dreaming big for your own self development you allow media to sap the power of your righteous imagination and distort it into fantasies that cannot ever come true. In a
moderate media problem the fantasy characters on the X box become more real
than family, quorum members, teachers and even friends. Grades start to become poor, your enthusiasm
for interacting with reality through hiking, biking, athletics, gardening, camping
or learning a musical instrument starts to shrink. The seeds that you are planting by indulging
in electronic media will be harvested in negative ways in the future. Those seeds will bring weeds. No future employer cares how good you may be
at playing a computer game. No
university will allow you acceptance based solely on hours and hours of watching
television. Coaches on athletic teams
will scoff when all you can do is push buttons to make colored light flash in
different ways. All of the time that you
spend with a moderate media problem cannot be traded off for anything of value
in your future. You will not be able to
impress a woman, feed a family, buy a car or make an investment based on
extensive media use.
Let’s do some math.
Let’s consider a 15 year career with a moderate media problem. First let me say that after I obtained my Bachelor’s
degree and my Master’s degree I worked on my PhD. This was a difficult task for me because I
worked on my PhD while working full time, traveling extensively in my profession, fulfilling a calling on the High Council,
and working with my wife to raise a family of 5 children. It took me about 5000 hours of effort to
obtain my PhD. I also want to say that,
if my numbers seem ridiculous in the next few statements, last week the Calgary Herald ran a report of
research being done in BC where it was found that some older teenagers were
spending up to 8.2 hours a day on the internet.
Now the math. If
you start at 4 years old, and I know that some children are propped in front of
a TV earlier, but if you start at 4 and you go until you are 19 and you are
involved for 1 hour a day in some type of electronic media, like the internet, television,
video or computer or handheld games, chat rooms, e-mailing, movies, DVDs etc, then in 15 years you have spent:
1 hour per day over 15 years is 5479. That’s more hours than I spent getting my
doctorate degree. What could you do with
5500 hours? Could you learn an
instrument, become an excellent athlete; easily get Duty to God on all levels?
2 hours a day
over 15 years would be 10958 hours. What
kind of harvest would you like to reap after spending almost 11,000 hours of
your time planting seeds?
3 hours a day over 15 years is 16437 hours.
4 hours a day is almost 21916 hours. We are talking here about potential black
belts in karate and concert pianists if those seeds were planted with the
correct focus.
5 hours a day would be 27395 hours.
And 6 hours a
day would be 32874 hours. This, in fact,
in just raw time, at my speed, would constitute over 6 PhD’s worth of time. When you start adding up all of the time it
becomes almost unbelievable. I have done
the math over and over, and I didn’t account for leap year or it would have
been a bit more. It is a staggering
amount of time. It is a staggering
amount of seeds that are planted.
If you have a moderate media problem you need to know
that you will never be able to trade your media experiences for anything of
worth in the future. This type of
problem will impair your growth and development in your personal plan of
salvation. If you have a moderate media
problem sit down with your parents, leaders or Bishop and figure out how you
can re-organize your life so that you are investing your time in a more
positive manner and planting better seeds.
If you have a 2 hour a day media involvement (that’s about 700 hours per
year) what could you do with that time that would get you something of benefit
in the future? Could you plant better
seeds so that you could reap a better harvest?
Could you plant seeds in academics, quorum activities, athletics,
mechanics, music, hobbies, camping, competitions, duty to God so that by the
time you are 19 you will have something of value and worth to offer the church,
an employer, your family or your community?
A severe media problem becomes a tragedy. It is at this point that media truly becomes
a foe and in fact can become a significant enemy and evil force in your
life. I have stood as a witness of those
who have wasted their lives by extensive and inappropriate uses of the
media. One of the saddest was a 23 year
old man, raised with many opportunities in an urban setting. He could not read. Together we calculated that he had spent
about 38000 hours on electronic media during his life. He was addicted to pornography, had seriously
harmed family relationships, could not keep a job, failed in athletics and
school, could not keep relationships with friends and felt a total and complete
failure. Being absorbed in computer games and videos as a youth kept him from his studies, his athletics, his music, his church, his friends and many other opportunities. As he grew older, his problem gained momentum. What a tragedy I witnessed that
day. Well, you need to know that there
is hope for this man to change. But he
had to realize the cold hard truth. When
you plant weeds you get weeds. At the point of severe media involvement and exposure, a person’s
reality testing ability becomes impaired.
This is because you live more in a fantasy world of electronics than in
the real world. It is in the real
concrete world where your personal plan of salvation is acted out, not in cyber
space. Often pornography use becomes
prolific in a severe media problem. As
we should all know by now, pornography can be highly addictive and may paralyze
a person from moving forward with life.
With a severe media problem, a person no longer finds interest in
activities such as athletics, musical instruments, concrete hobbies, camping,
hiking, fishing or biking. The harvest
reaped from severe media problems is that of destruction, broken lives, broken
families, broken dreams. This is a
tragedy. In severe problems the media is
a foe and an enemy.
In conclusion I would like to make a couple of
observations, ask a couple of questions and make a couple of suggestions:
First, my observations
1. If you look carefully at
the Duty to God awards on all three levels, there is no credit anywhere given for the leisure use
of electronic media. You don’t get
points for watching TV, playing computer games or being in chat rooms. This should be a significant hint.
2. I observe that the less
electronic media involvement for entertainment that a person has, the more successful they tend to be
in the world of concrete reality.
3. Rather than being entertained and lulled by electronic media, we could all learn to take charge of it, make it our servant, and promote the gospel, goodness, reports of good things and how to make our world and yourself a better place. Some have done this and we should take a lesson from them. Media can be used as a powerful tool to promote goodness, fairness and high principles of living rather than as a vehicle for amusement. This is a message for another day.
3. Rather than being entertained and lulled by electronic media, we could all learn to take charge of it, make it our servant, and promote the gospel, goodness, reports of good things and how to make our world and yourself a better place. Some have done this and we should take a lesson from them. Media can be used as a powerful tool to promote goodness, fairness and high principles of living rather than as a vehicle for amusement. This is a message for another day.
Questions
1. What do you understand
about the general plan of salvation and what do you understand about your
specific role in this plan?
2. What do you understand
about the law of the harvest and how it applies to the use of electronic media
in your life? Here are some questions
and they are not trick questions: When
you plant wheat what to you get? When
you see wheat in the field what did you plant?
When you, or someone else, plant(s) weeds what do you get?
When you see weeds in the field what did you plant or allow someone else to plant for you?
Suggestions
1. I would suggest that each
one of us examine carefully, and on an ongoing basis, our use and exposure to entertainment with electronic media. Let’s find out how
much time we are actually spending in these activities. In other words, let’s make an honest
accounting. Examine carefully the seeds
you are planting, and honestly recognize the harvest you will reap.
2. If you have a mild problem
with media make some corrections: change
your time for something more valuable.
If you have a moderate problem with electronic media get some help from
your parents or leaders to make adjustments to your lifestyle. If you have a severe problem with the media
then get serious about getting some serious help. Repent.
Go to your Bishop. Seek some type
of serious rehabilitation to get out of an addiction that will destroy many of
your opportunities for growth and crush your dreams. If you are enjoying the healthy use of electronic media
then congratulations. You should be
giving this talk.
I know that we lived in the premortal life. We were all loved and important to Heavenly
Father. We knew the gospel and came here
to earth to serve grand purposes and to prove ourselves worthy to return home
to our Heavenly Father. We came to have
concrete experiences in the concrete world and in doing so, to find the correct
path home. There are many distractions
on the way home. We cannot and must not
allow those distractions to keep us from being the best we can be. Do not allow the media to bleed off your
righteous dreams and your righteous purpose in life. Five, ten and fifteen years will pass by in
your lives. What do you want to trade
that time for? What harvest do you want
to reap? If you want to grow success and
happiness then start planting seeds that will give you success and happiness in
the months, years and decades that surely will come. Now is the time to start.
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