General Conference

I love how the internet allows us to watch General Conference at home, especially when we do not have a television. Also, my husband speaks Haitain Kreyol and General Conference is already online in Kreyol. That is absolutely amazing to me. I am also grateful that Conference is online because I got the stomach flu yesterday and was not able to watch the Sunday sessions, so I am grateful I do not have to wait for a month for the Ensign to come out to be able to read and listen to General Conference. Such an amazing blessing.

ABC Family

Dear ABC Family,

For many years I have watched ABC Family and enjoyed the new movies that would come out, especially around Christmas. In recent years, I have felt the need to really monitor what I choose to watch on ABC Family because the content was not the most appropriate. Therefore, I am writing this letter to point out a few areas where I feel your station could improve in the message it is conveying to its audience.

I am currently a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT and this semester, I participated in a group research project where my group members and I decided to look at the amount of relational aggression on ABC Family television shows. Relational aggression, for those unfamiliar with the term, is behaviors, such as gossiping and teasing, which harm the relationships of individuals. We chose ABC Family because the title of your network claims that your network is family appropriate and we wanted to see if that was really true. Even though this study was not formal by any means, it did open my eyes to the amount of relational aggression that is shown on your network. In many instances, individuals were not punished for using relational aggression. This is extremely troubling to me because if children and adolescents are watching these shows, they may begin to think that it is alright to gossip, tease, ignore, and use psychological manipulation on those they associate with. Also, these behaviors could be quite harmful when used within the family because they could lead to fighting and lack of respect, which could lead to poor family relationships. In addition, relational aggression is the only thing we looked specifically at, but there was also physical aggression, sexual scenes and innuendos, and messages concerning the importance of having a perfect body when it is almost impossible to look like the women in the media. I do not feel that any of these messages are appropriate for families, but yet you are conveying the message that they are appropriate.

Thus, I send to you a call for action. I feel that the name of ABC Family should be changed to a title that better fits the content of the station or that the content of the station should be changed so it is more appropriate for the audience that ABC Family is trying to reach. I know that change is not easy. These changes will bring about a loss of audience and money, but they could also bring more viewers that are more willing to watch family oriented content, which could also bring more money to the network. I would ask you to think about your families and whether or not you want your children doing and saying the things portrayed in your programing. If the answer is no, why are you endorsing a network that is sending negative messages to families throughout America? Please, really consider what I have said and be willing to make changes where they are necessary.

Skype

My husband has been in Connecticut for a few days visiting Yale University and I have been staying at my parents' house with the baby. So, the other day my mom sat the baby down next to me when I was chatting with my husband on gmail and the baby was so darn cute sitting by me like a little man that I had to skype his dad. It is amazing to me that even though my husband is in Connecticut, he can instantly have a live video of his 3 month old son just chillin' on the couch. Love it!!!

Dividing Ourselves

This past week in my adolescent development class, Dr. Walker mentioned a quote from Elder Ian S. Ardern's talk from Oct 2011 General Conference where he said, "Let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text." I was glad to be reminded of this statement because there are many times when I get so focused on watching television, or reading emails, or checking facebook or blogs I follow, and I forget to stop and take the time to turn to Heavenly Father in prayer. We are generally very quick to check all our media, but are we willing to turn to the Lord in prayer as frequently as we turn to our media? How much closer would we be to Him if we did so?

Wedding and Baby Registries

One of the amazing uses of the media is wedding and baby registries. Before I got married, I loved being able to scan the items that I wanted and needed for our new home. My favorite part was being able to log on to my account online and see what people had bought me. So great! When I was pregnant, I again enjoyed scanning items for my baby and having people get them for me. I don't know what people did before registries. This past week my friend had a bridal shower and it was easy for me to go to Target, print out her registry, and easily get something that she needs and wants. Enjoy using the wonderful medium of registries!

What is real beauty?

Trying to gain an understanding of real beauty is difficult in the world today. Thin is the ideal and women are so nipped, tucked, painted, and edited that they look absolutely perfect. How can we compete with that? I think the key is remembering that we are sons and daughters of divinity. We are not just ordinary people walking around. We truly are divine and have the ability to accomplish many great things. One of my favorite scriptures is found in  1 Samuel 16:7, "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The mormonad for this scripture states, "Be your own kind of beautiful." It is always important to remember to not judge the world or ourselves by our outward appearance. We all have amazing beauty to offer the world and trying to be like the men and women in the media will only hide that beauty.

 

General Conference Talks

There is a girl in my ward that works for the Church Office Building, specially for the Ensign and Liahona Magazines. This weekend she was talking about the role she plays in the editing process of the conference talks. She said she checks for punctuation and then the talks are sent off to be translated into many different languages. The talks then come back to her department and they check the grammar again and make sure the translations have been written correctly. I think this process is amazing and eventually we get to read these talks in the Ensign  or on the internet. I also find it amazing that in a few weeks these talks will be sent throughout the entire world in many different languages and to many different types of people. The media is such an amazing thing!