If you have not yet read or listened to this talk by Elder Bednar, I highly recommend it. He locates the question of internet usage and screen time within the framework of the Plan of Salvation. This is one of my favorite ways to teach, as I talked about in this post a while ago. In a nutshell, an abundance of screen time deemphasizes the importance of our bodies, and of having a real, physical experience in the real world. But that’s a too-brief synopsis. Anyone who struggles with limiting screen time, or who is related to people who struggle with screen time, should read this talk.
I’ve listened to it three times. I wish that it did not speak so clearly to me, but it does. I can lose track of time and my house and my kids, all the things that are real, as I stare and click at things that have little substance. In the blog world, there are no dishes or laundry, no whining children, no physical things to worry over. It’s easy for me to escape my real life… kind of like Nichole Trone talks about in her Fall 2008 essay, “Finding Courage.” She tells the story of a mission companion who was so scared of failing at being a missionary that she struggled to leave the apartment. Her companion pretended that staying at home and studying Russian was a valuable use of time, better than getting out there in the messy real world, being embarrassed by bad language skills, trying, and failing, and trying again. It takes courage to face reality, and she and her companion find it.
I am not dissing blogging; I’m grateful for the strength and the community I have found here. But I also need to set boundaries on it, to make sure that I am living in the real world. In the real world my daughter wants help gluing sequins on her latest creation, my toddler is getting into something, my son needs help doing the dishes. It is hard to leave the screen, because the real world means messes and sometimes failure.
But it also means real joy.
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