President Russell M. Nelson has invited Latter-day Saints to make discipleship of Jesus Christ their highest priority. At Ensign College, an institution of higher education founded and sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the school’s mission to develop capable and trusted disciples of Jesus Christ reinforces this invitation even in secular degrees like social media marketing.
On this episode of the Church News podcast, Joseph Kerry, chair of the Communication Department at Ensign College, joins Church News reporter Mary Richards to share how to wisely use social media while increasing one’s discipleship of Jesus Christ.
He stresses the significance of creating and consuming uplifting content, being a peacemaker online and how intentional technology use can help maintain spiritual and emotional well-being.
Listen to this episode of the Church News podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, bookshelf PLUS, YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.
Transcript:
Joseph Kerry: But we need to do that with intentionality, because one of the risks of social media is we look at this and then we begin to believe: “This defines me. This is who I am. And what these voices are telling me, that’s what has to be believed.” And the more good that you feed into yourself through social media, you’ll see more of that content come in. But the other side is also true. If you feed yourself with things that you shouldn’t or that detract from the Spirit, you will be fed more of that as well. Now think about that online. If we put out those beautiful kinds of messages, and we are an example, that’s what we need to be doing. And as we do those things, I‘m convinced that we will strengthen ourselves, we will help others, and we’ll find that peace that seems so elusive.
1:09
Mary Richards: This is Mary Richards, reporter at the Church News. Welcome to the Church News podcast. Today we are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In his invitations to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide, President Russell M. Nelson has invited us all to make our discipleship of Jesus Christ our highest priority. Next door from us at the Church News is Ensign College, where the school’s mission is to “develop capable and trusted disciples of Jesus Christ.”
One of the degrees offered is social media marketing. And so I wanted to learn more about how these two concepts connect, how to use social media in the world where we are today, while increasing our discipleship of Jesus Christ.
Joining me for this episode of the Church News podcast is Ensign College professor Joseph Kerry, the associate dean of vocational and technical studies and chair of the Communication Department at Ensign College. Welcome, Joe, to the Church News podcast.
2:18
Joseph Kerry: Thank you. I am excited to be here — very excited.
2:22
Mary Richards: Those dual roles at Ensign College and you’re a member of the Utah State Board of Education, you’re pretty busy.
2:27
Joseph Kerry: Yeah, busy. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I get to work with students, the rising generation. And I know there’s a lot of commentary, and there is a lot of people that are anxious and nervous about this generation, but I have to tell you that they’re going to be just fine. They’re good, their hearts are in the right place. In my experience, they’re hard workers, and it’s a blessing to work with them every day.
2:56
Mary Richards: Thank you for saying that. I‘m a mother of five, and I do get a little worried about the future my children face, or if they’re capable and ready for it. I have a missionary, and then two high schoolers next year, and then middle schooler and elementary schooler. So you deal with all of those ages, college students down to elementary in these roles that you have.
3:16
Joseph Kerry: Yeah, it really is an interesting perspective, because in the State Board of Education, we deal with that K-12, and then at Ensign College, we deal with those students who they’re emerging from that, and they’re coming to Ensign and nontraditional students as well.
But what has amazed me is they’re growing up in a time of tremendous uncertainty, and I saw something on a — well, social media, and it talked about how we used to meet each other in terms of when you became a couple. And historically, it started with your family, that’s how we met, you know, the person that we began dating, and then it was friends. And then in the ’60s and ’70s, it became coworkers.
But over all those generations, none of those categories: family, friends or coworkers was ever more than I think, 40% of how we met each other. Today, over 60% of couples meet each other through social media, online.
That is a massive change in just how we meet people, how we perceive people. And there are great things about it. There are some not great things about it, but it’s just one of those things that has undergone transformational change because of the internet and the way we interact with each other.
4:42
Mary Richards: You make me think of other things I‘ve read too about when you say, ”How many friends do you have?” And you think, oh, online friends or social media friends or followers? But in person, in real life, friends, you know that difference there, too.
4:55
Joseph Kerry: And what’s amazing is that, having grown up before the internet, I always looked at these two calibers of friends. They were my real friends, who I met with, and we did things. But watching my children interact with people that they’ve met online, and then they game together, right, that they’ll do these various games, and the way that they speak to each other, the regard that they hold each other in, those are good friends.
Like my son perceives some of the people that he is friends with online as among his best friends. And we’ve had discussions about that, like, “How does that happen?” But I‘m sure you know, you’ve all, I don’t know how old your kids are, but if they — are they teenagers?
Mary Richards: Yes.
Joseph Kerry: So if they play online, you’ll just be reading a book or watching TV, and all of a sudden you’re screaming, right? Because they’ve achieved whatever goal that they wanted to do. But watching that excitement, watching that authenticity, and they are building this friendship without ever having met them.
That’s different, and it creates a lot of uncertainty among parents, because we like meeting friends of our kids.
Mary Richards: And their parents.
Joseph Kerry: Right, parents, and we want to know who they are, and a lot of times we’re more anxious about it then than our actual kids.
6:23
Mary Richards: You know, this makes me think of the “For the Strength of Youth” guide the ways that our children, and honestly this is also for us adults too, can make choices and be inspired. And chapter 4 is “Walk in God’s Light‚” and it talks about how we can use these things on online and technology to uplift, to inspire, like you’re saying, and make friendships and have good relationships there.
6:53
Joseph Kerry: I guess it was maybe five, six years ago, during the Saturday session of general conference. I would have general conference on, and we would be watching it, but then I would also be following a general conference feed over one of the social media platforms.
And as the speaker was speaking, there’s this whole other conversation taking place online, where people are commenting in real time about what the speaker is saying and just sharing their personal experiences or how what was said touched them or motivated them.
After doing that once I realized I‘m not smart enough to do both of those things at the same time, right? Like I found myself listening and following this feed, and so I stopped that, but I was really impressed at how people were able to bring those things together, and the really talented people they were creating memes and videos in real time of what was being said at conference and pushing that out.
And you can see where general conference is trending in terms of popularity. And I look at that, and I‘m like, look at how, how much more that message is being pushed out and promoted, not because someone is telling someone to do this, but because someone wants to share like this message meant this to me. It changed my life this way. I want to share that. And I think that is the power of social media in the lives of us as a society, but also in the lives of our kids and our children.
8:39
Mary Richards: Organic, authentic, sharing truth and light, those kinds of things.
8:46
Joseph Kerry: Yeah, and I think also humor. When I grew up in Primary, the ”Popcorn Popping” song, right? There was only one way to sing it, and we sang that for all the time we were in Primary. And I was going through my social media feed, and I‘m watching several variations of that trend. Like it’s just being sung in a different way, still respectful, still with the right message in the right spirit, but it is connecting with people that would have just scrolled and fast forwarded, had it been sung, you know, the other way.
So I think those things — that variation because it’s authentic. And maybe this way it’s only going to reach 500 people or 1,000 people, but maybe that’s 1,000 people that we couldn’t reach before.
And so I just love that kind of variety, authenticity, as you said, it’s a reflection of us, and when our DNA is in something, it comes alive, and we’re able to reach people that no one else could reach because we’re speaking through our voice and our heart, and social media gives us that opportunity.
9:58
Mary Richards: I think about framing things that we do in thinking through our covenants that we’ve made with God. That idea that you just said about who we are, who I am is, I‘m a child of God, a child of the covenant, a disciple of Jesus Christ, as President Russell M. Nelson has said.
How do you teach this idea of living the gospel, living who you are, living your covenants you’ve made with God in what you’re doing every day? In Ensign College, you’re training people to have careers to move out into the world, social media marketing as a career that does not need to be separate from who they are in their true identities, correct?
10:35
Joseph Kerry: One hundred percent. And you know, the mission of Ensign College is “to develop capable and trusted disciples of Jesus Christ,” and that mission is at the core of everything we do. And I have been surprised. I‘ve had students come into the social media marketing program, and they will say, in one of the assignments, it’ll say, use these four or five social media platforms and develop a message.
I‘ll have students come up and say, “I‘m not active on that social media platform.” And I‘m always impressed by two things: One, that this student has determined that I want to be in this field, right, like this is where I need to be. But that doesn’t mean I‘m comfortable on all these platforms, this one I am not comfortable on. And I‘ve undergone this change of heart, because at first I thought, well, the student really — like these are platforms that your employer is going to expect.
But I look at it a different way now. I think that when that student is true and authentic to themselves, there is more power in their voice, there is more sincerity, more reach. And you know, as I was a practicing attorney for a long time, and we get clients that we’re not necessarily fond of them, but the job says you need to represent them.
And when I look back, I thought, you know, even if you thought you were putting in 100%, did you do the same job that you would have done if you actually saw the world the way they did? And it doesn’t mean that you were actively trying to do less, but you just weren’t capable of doing 110%. And so these students that say, “I don’t feel comfortable on this platform, but I want to be here.” There’s incredible strength in that. And so I do think that there is this balance that you can find with social media.
But I would just add this: I think that in the world of social media, where billions of messages are sent every day, and I forget how many hundreds of thousands of hours we consume in video in a given day on social media, I think the most important thing is you just find that place to reset.
And I think about, you know the prophet Elijah, and he does this great thing in the Old Testament, he confronts King Ahab (see 1 Kings 17:1). And the first thing he’s told to do after that is, “Hey, go to this place, Cherith” (see 1 Kings 17:2-3). And it’s a difficult place to get to, not a lot of people. And for the next six months to a year, Elijah is there, and as far as we know from the Bible, no one else is there. It’s just him and the Ravens who brought him food twice a day (see 1 Kings 17:4-6).
And I think we need to find our own Cherith today. Because one of the risks of social media is we look at this and then we begin to believe: “This defines me. This is who I am. And what these voices are telling me, that’s what has to be believed.” But when we find our own Cherith, and maybe it’s in the temple, maybe it’s going to church on Sunday, maybe it’s in prayer, maybe it’s in meditation or yoga or a good book, but when we find that place where we can find ourselves, it’s that opportunity to reset and remind ourselves of who we really are, why we’re here, and what our purpose is.
14:14
Mary Richards: This is reminding me of a tool or resource for youth. But really also for all of us about using technology, “Taking Charge of Technology” is the guide. And also this was in “Preach My Gospel” as well, for missionaries. These are things that I think anybody can use about — kind of these safeguards to plan, have a purpose, pause if you need to, and kind of start to be a little more mindful of your use, and what’s going on there.
14:43
Joseph Kerry:I‘m sure you’ve had this experience too. You say I‘m gonna go on, I‘m gonna check my mail, I‘m gonna look at the — who messaged me on whatever platform, and then two and a half hours later, right? You’re like, where did that time go? Right? And I think that’s part of that, you know, it’s OK. I don’t think it’s inherently good or bad. I think a lot of it is how we decide to use it, and I do think that we need to be more mindful of that.
But I‘m always surprised, too, at how powerful that content is and how much it resonates with us. I love when I‘m walking up and down the streets of Salt Lake City, and I‘ll see somebody, and they’re scrolling on their phone, and they just see something that’s funny, and they laugh, right? And they’re in their own world, but they are, they’re having that moment right in this world full of pressure and stress, they have found something to be happy about there.
I think that’s a good thing. But I do think that we have to approach it with this understanding that, you know, being on the State Board of Education, we see the data and our kids today, one of the things that gets them most anxious is just talking to people face-to-face.
We see it all the time, and even if it’s just ordering fast food through a drive through, studies show that there is this spike in anxiety among some of our kids where they just don’t want to do that. And I think part of that is because our communication has become so remote, and that has a cost, right?
Like we talked about dating early on and how now, over 60% of couples find their dating partner through social media. But there’s something to be said. You know, when I was growing up, if you wanted to ask someone out, you had to summon the courage and see them face-to-face and ask. Well, today it can just be swiping right, and what does that do to us? Do we treat it casually? Do we treat these people’s feelings casually? Does it dehumanize people when you don’t have to look them in the eye, talk face-to-face and ask them questions, when you can just do it anonymously or remotely?
And those things do have a cost, and we have to remind ourselves all the time that the people that we are bumping into and meeting on these platforms, they’re real people with real feelings, and that’s a reminder that comes in, not just online, but offline as well.
17:24
Mary Richards: We talked about our identities. I‘m a child of God. This other person is a child of God too. Makes me think too about any tips you might give for dealing with trolls and that kind of thing. And when I say trolls like that kind of definition of an internet troll, someone who’s using the online presence to bully or to irritate or to annoy, those kinds of things.
17:46
Joseph Kerry: One hundred percent. And they are out there, and they’re very real. And I tell people, we live in this society where if you can be the last one to have a funny or snarky comment, that’s how you win, right? That’s how we settle fights today, virtually.
But again, I would just go back to Elijah. You know, the King Ahab. He changes the political dynamics of the country. He introduces idol worship and other changes to religion. And Elijah is meeting face-to-face with this king who has done so much harm to the people and country that he loves, Elijah’s had to hide and be fed by ravens, for six months. If there’s a person who had a reason to verbally put down or attack Ahab, it was Elijah. But there’s this drought that takes place. And when it’s revealed to Elijah that it’s going to rain, the Bible tells us that the first thing Elijah does is he sends his servant to tell the king. Elijah says that it’s going to rain, and if you don’t want your chariot to get stuck in the mud, you better leave now (see 1 Kings 18).
And that scripture blows me away, because Elijah would have been the last person who had a reason to do that, but he found it in himself to say, I‘m going to be the better person. And you know, to this king who had threatened to kill him, caused him to go into hiding, he still has this love, this in a way, respect, but just gentleness.
And I think if we are not careful, social media can strip that from us. And we realize that we are not gentle. And I think the other risk is it was nice for a time to believe that I was the only Joseph Kerry on the planet, but the internet shows you that’s not the case. Because when, if you Google yourself, you realize, wow, there’s a lot of people with my name out there.
And I think sometimes you can feel that you are not the individual, that you aren’t a unique child of God. I call it exceptional, and I tell all my students, God does not make average people. He can’t. We are all exceptional. And the internet, though, has a way of saying, you know, you’re not that exceptional, right? Let me show you someone who’s accomplished this or has done this, and there’s a risk there that we begin to misplace our priorities, and we see that people, especially children, especially young women, more than young men who use social media excessively, they are less happy, and I think part of that is because they think that, “Oh, I‘m not exceptional, I‘m not special.”
And they lose that perspective that, “No, you really are if you could see yourself the way your Heavenly Father sees you.” And that’s why we see these — anxiety in the younger generations, we see increased depression, suicidal ideation. And those are very real, and I know that as our public schools, we look at that data, and how do we fix that? How to resolve that?
In Utah, the governor just signed a bill saying, “Look, you can’t use your cell phones in class.” Part of that is designed to just create this space around the student where they are safe.
My mother, she’s from North Korea. I was born in Korea. My mom did not look like the other moms when I was in school. My mom didn’t talk like the other moms. And daily, kids would remind me of that, right? They would tease me, and I guess we call it bullying today. And the one advantage I had back then was when I got home, it stopped. Right, because you were just there with your mom.
But today our kids — that follows them right through the front door, it follows them right into the bedroom or the kitchen. But that’s why I think this discussion is so vital, because we need to internalize this notion that our kids need us more than ever. And I know it’s tough, because you know if you ask, if you ask your child what they did in school today, it’s generally nothing, another day of nothing.
But we really have to work hard because they want us to connect with them. They want that reality, and because that social media is with them always, they need to know that a loving Heavenly Father is also with them all the time, and His angels watch over them when they’re awake and when they’re asleep. And to me that’s the story that has to get out. Is that not just how do you stop it, but you’re surrounded by goodness, and we have to see that and we have to recognize that.
23:11
Mary Richards: When you were speaking, I thought, I just need to crack down harder on my children. But how can I help be that place for them? Help them learn how to use this responsibly? So many thoughts are going through my brain. Also, I think about President Nelson’s invitation to be a peacemaker that extends to being online. The invitations he gave to take fasts from social media and specifically to women and to teenagers. That really kind of changed me when I accepted that invitation. His invitations to prepare for the Second Coming, to gather Israel. All of these can be framed in this idea of where we’re living online and what we’re doing there, too.
23:50
Joseph Kerry: I love the part about, you know, being a peacemaker, because we see record levels of incivility. And again, I think part of that is driven by the anonymity that social media can sometimes provide. And also the distance, right, the consequences of what you say, they may not be as timely, or they may not happen at all just because it’s so remote.
But one of the things that drew me into communication and social media was I used to work at syndicated radio and cable television. And if you had a message, whether you were a business person who wanted sales, you were a politician who wanted votes, you’re a nonprofit that wanted donations, you spent a considerable amount of your time thinking about: “How do I get on that radio show? How do I get on that cable show?”
Social media has equalized that in many, many ways. And now you have individuals, we call them influencers, who have more active listeners than some of our international cable companies. And what a great, powerful microphone that is where you reach these individuals, and you can talk to them in a way that 10 years ago, 15 years ago, the only way you could have had that kind of audience was to go through a third party. So in many ways, it is an exceptional time to be alive, to have access, even this great podcast, right?
And your audience is international, it’s worldwide. And we no longer have to rely on these other third parties to get your message out. If you’re passionate about something, you go out and get your microphone, plug into the internet, and you’re reaching a worldwide audience.
Look at the success of the Church in the field of education, with our BYU–Pathway program, and how we are able to reach students at a number that we could not do before. That’s all because of the advances that we have made. And it goes back to the point that we need to use these tools better, instead of looking at them and maybe saying, “I shouldn’t be there.” And I think that’s part of the role of peacemaking, which is being our genuine, authentic selves when we’re on the social media platforms, as well as when we’re off.
26:31
Mary Richards: You’ve just made me think of as tools and technology advance so quickly, we also have AI and all of these things out there going quickly as well, when I get anxious about that, about discerning and understanding what’s true and what’s not, and being able to really get some more education around those kinds of things as I‘m online. I‘m calmed when I remember that each week I take the sacrament and I‘m promised that the Spirit will always be with me. How can we rely on the Spirit when we’re looking at discerning right from wrong, truth from evil, truth from fake, AI and all those things?
27:08
Joseph Kerry: So one of the things that I talk to my students about is I ask them to estimate how much time do you spend on social media, and then I — they don’t have to share it with the class. And then I‘ll say, “How much time did you spend developing yourself spiritually today?” Right? “How many of the sites you visited had themes that are reflected in gospel teachings and gospel principles?”
And there’s a handful of students who find that balance, but most do what I did when I was a teenager or a young adult, and that is you don’t value it as much, at least I didn’t. But now, my counsel to them is, it’s not — the scales aren’t, “Oh, I visited this many, secular websites, this many religious.” It’s about conditioning your mind and your soul to seek out that balance. And to really understand that you need that constant infusion of gospel principles in your life to weather the storms.
And students are receptive to that message because they see it in their own lives. They see it and they see the need for it. And I am pleased to see — we see the leaders of the Church, it appears to me, more active on social media. With their posts and the content, we see more apps being developed. I think all that is fantastic, because it’s that exposure that I think strengthens us, fortifies us and helps us.
28:55
Mary Richards: Yeah, talk about algorithms. This is one of my favorite topics with my sisters-in-law at family dinner. We talk about how the more that we click on or about something, the more we’ll see that topic. We actually shared how we’d been kind of tricked by somebody, we thought it was a Church account, and it wasn’t. And the next thing you know, our algorithm was gearing us more toward these anti things, and we had to backpedal out of that and try to refresh to have good things again. For people who don’t quite understand algorithms, how do those work?
29:24
Joseph Kerry: Yes, so you really summed it up nicely, which is these social media platforms have enough artificial intelligence, have enough computing power where they can recognize the content that appeals to you. And it’s been fascinating to see, some platforms do it better than others, but that’s why, if you watch five fishing reels or short videos, all of a sudden you’re being peppered with more fishing short videos. And it’s smart enough to begin to discern: “Well, is it fishing in general? Is it salt water fishing? Is it fishing on the high seas? Is it beach fishing?” And you think you’re just finding content that makes you happy, that you can relate to. But these companies are building a profile on you, and they know what you like, they know what you don’t like, probably a good indication of where you stand politically, whether you’re religious or nonreligious.
That gives marketers a tremendous advantage on you. And I‘m sure you’ve had these conversations with your family where you may be talking to a sister or a relative about: “What do you think about going on vacation to the Caribbean?”
Mary Richards: And then you see ads for the Caribbean.
Joseph Kerry: And then you see, right? And you’re like, wait a second. And where do they get that information from? And so we look at it as entertainment. These companies look at it as a business. And their business is information, and you are the product in that sense.
They want to know everything they can know about you demographically. In our classes, we talk about the demographics, you know, single, married, age, religion, occupation. Then they begin introducing psychographics, right? And they look at you and say, “What would she like to do on a day off? What would she like to do for a full-time job?” And they build this profile around you that if you met this person in real life, it would probably look like a clone, because they’re that good.
The more good that you feed into yourself through social media, you’ll see more of that content come in. But the other side is also true. If you feed yourself with things that you shouldn’t or that detract from the Spirit, you will be fed more of that as well.
It’s funny; I was watching some videos about homecomings, soldiers that didn’t make it home. It’s Memorial Day, so you see this uptick in this kind of content. And I just got tired of crying every night because the algorithm keeps feeding me these videos. And they are just so sad. And then at first I thought, wow. But you know, we’re developing this connection. But now I look at it and say, “Is it this connection, or am I being, is there a type of manipulation here at some point, right?”
And again, it’s that balance, and that’s why we have to come back to our Cherith. Just like Elijah, we’ve got to come back to that place where you can recenter. And when I was talking to a group of students, they’re like: “What do you mean? Like church?” And I said: “Well, that’s part of it, right? And going to the temple and saying prayers and strengthening your faith, but part of it is, where do you go to feel close to God?”
And some people, like I said, they meditate, some people it’s yoga, some people it’s fishing, some people it’s reading a good book. But we need to do that with intentionality. If we think we’re just going to stumble upon it, I think those days are behind us. I think we have to go out with intentionality and say: “How do I strengthen — I call it getting right with God — how do we get right with God? What do I have to do?” Because what I have to do is going to be different than anybody else.
We need to start our days with that kind of intentionality and say: “What content is going to do that for me? Where can I go that’s going to do it?” It’s one of the reasons why I love teaching at Ensign College, it strengthens me. Because I see these students with such incredibly strong testimonies. What they’ve had to endure, in terms of their tests on their faith, but also coming here to the United States, in many cases, to study.
We need to do that more often. We need to say, I‘m going to listen to the Church News podcast, because I need to replace that constant stream of political — I used to work in Washington, D.C., so there’s a part of me that still is attracted to that part of life. But I make it a point to say I need to replace that with something better. It’s not enough to say I‘m going to avoid it. I need to fill that and we need to identify those sources. So like you said, the algorithm says, “This is more content that this person needs or wants.”
35:03
Mary Richards: You know, and we’ve talked about consuming media and how we are consuming it, and we are consumers and a product, so interesting you said that. When it comes to creation, what do you teach in your classes about creating, not just for these future professionals, but then also in our own lives? Because I‘m reminded of Elder David A. Bednar’s invitation from [BYU] Education Week, roughly 10 years ago, to flood the earth with good messages and good news. I think about President Nelson’s invitation in November 2020 to make social media a gratitude journal. That changed so much for me, that particular time in my life, that was difficult for so many people, switching to gratitude. So when we are creating messages that we put out into the world, what kind of advice do you have?
35:46
Joseph Kerry: I always start when we talk about content creation, I start with, who is the Ultimate Creator? You have to start there. And that’s clear. It’s our Heavenly Father. And when we talk about that, look at what He created, look at the planning, look at the care. And everything around us we trace back to the Creator, the Architect.
And I think it’s the same thing in students, which is a lot, not a lot, but some students say, “Well, I need to be myself,” right? “And this is what I feel.” And I get it because they feel depressed, they feel anxious. They’re fighting these fights internally. But again, with intentionality, we can be our best self, we can be our better self, and we need to strive for that. We need to really reach out and say, “What can I do better?”
The Church did a, I don’t want to call it a contest, but they said to all the CES institutions in the area, send us your best videos. And I forget the exact theme, but it was, create a video built around this particular theme, and that’s the only instruction that the Church gave. And these videos were amazing. Just watching the students when they were really able to pursue what it meant for them to be living gospel principles and seeing that.
And I think sometimes you can feel like the story of the little girl who was walking along the beach, and she would pick up a starfish and throw it in, saw another one and threw it in, and the old man says, “You can’t save all the starfish.” And she said, “Well, I can save this one and then this one.” And I think it’s the same thing with good content. Sometimes it feels overwhelming because you see a lot of content out there that isn’t good, and you’re like, well, it’s just one starfish.
But I will tell you, and I think most people have had this experience where you see something online that just gives you a bit more strength for the day. It fortifies you for the day. It reminds you that you are exceptional, that you are not average. And that is the power of the one. And so, OK, you’re not making a thousand of these a day. You’re making one, but that might be reaching thousands, and I think that’s the standard.
38:21
Mary Richards: We talked to our son who’s on a mission in Bolivia, about sowing seeds and harvesting. And sometimes you’re a part of the planting, sometimes you’re part of the harvest. His social media use is so interesting to watch on his mission in Bolivia, where he has some Spanish channels that he’s posting on, what the missionaries are using, and through video like you talked about before, with the “Popcorn Popping” and the missionaries singing, but he’s issuing invitations.
Just a week or so ago, he had a post where he talked about seeing a beautiful tree on his walk with his companion that made him think about God. And he said, “What have you seen today that makes you think about God?” And it started this conversation with people. And other times, friends of the Church or maybe they haven’t even known about the Church yet, will come across a post like this and want to know more. And that’s a beautiful thing to see that.
39:11
Joseph Kerry: And what always impresses me is that the Church places, in part, its reputation, its history, its future in the hands of these young men and young women. Because they are representing the Church. And if this were a marketing class, I would say the brand, like everything that we’ve built, and stand for that when people hear it. And to me, that’s a tremendous, powerful reminder that this is His work, this is Heavenly Father’s work, and to watch them share those things.
And again, you said it best because you started by saying this authenticity. And the most effective type of social media is this authentic, you speaking from the heart, and it’s when you’re having a hard day to say, “Yeah, today was a hard day.” And I think one of the issues with social media is that we’re in this constant state of having to think, “Oh, I can’t have any hard days, right? And money can’t be tight and I have to show that I‘m still vacationing, or I‘m still doing X, Y and Z.”
It’s not only a little bit deceptive to the people watching that, but what are you doing to yourself when you keep trying to tell yourself this is the standard that I think people hold me to when it prevents so many authentic conversations of saying that’s happening to me too, right? I‘m having that doubt. I‘m having that worry, or, like with your son when he recognizes, you know, the Architect’s hand in a walk. What a great opportunity to connect with someone who said, “I saw a sunset and I thought the same thing.”
And it’s interesting, because you would think this anonymity would allow us to be more candid, but with a certain amount of irony, it doesn’t allow us to do that because we feel like we need to be the person that we think others expect us to be, when I think the reality is most of us just want to see the real you and get to know the real person.
41:30
Mary Richards: In a devotional you gave at Ensign College, you reminded the students that they are exceptional. And I go back always to those identities that President Nelson reminded us of: being a child of God and a child of the covenant and a disciple of Jesus Christ, and talking about this perfectionism idea, how the Savior told us to be perfect, but it was more to be complete and whole in Him, be perfected in Him.
So with all of that in mind, and all your experience in life and your career, and now at Ensign College, I‘ve come to our last question on the Church News podcast. Which is always — we ask our guests so that they get the last word — what do you know now? And so I wanted to know, what do you know now about being disciples of Jesus Christ, being perfect in Him (see Moroni 10:32), in this whole principle that we’ve been speaking about with social media?
42:30
Joseph Kerry: That’s a great question. And I would say on those two fronts, that one of the things that inspired me to get involved in public life on the State Board of Education was there was an elected person on Facebook, and they would always talk about their relationship with the Savior. They would always talk about what that meant to them.
And I remember thinking that, “Wow, I need to do that more.” Like I‘m not expressing my gratitude as we have been counseled to do. And I realized then that there is a difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. And, you know, peacemaker, that’s when we want to bring people together. We extend civility and kindness and understanding.
A peacekeeper is someone who’s so afraid of causing a wave that they don’t do and share those things that are making a difference in their life for risk of offending someone else. And I know it’s a slight distinction, but I thought, “Wow, I‘m really living my life as a peacekeeper, not a peacemaker.” And that was a big change for me.
And so I think we need to — I lived in Texas for a while, and I was one who, if I went out to a public restaurant, if I said a prayer, it was a prayer in disguise, right? No one could tell I was praying. But I‘m looking around this restaurant and this table is saying a prayer, that table is saying a prayer, they’re saying a prayer over here. And I left Texas and thought, you know, I‘m never going to do that again, because it inspires other people. And what convinced me of that was I was sitting at one table. There was a table next to me, and there was a little girl at that table, and she was pointing at a table across the room, saying, “What are those people doing?” And the parents had to explain to their little girl that, “Oh, they’re saying a prayer.” And I thought, “Wow, we can be that example.”
Now think about that online, if we put out those beautiful kinds of messages, and we are an example. That’s what we need to be doing. And as we do those things, I‘m convinced that we will strengthen ourselves, we will help others, and we’ll find that peace that seems so elusive.
45:13
Mary Richards: Thank you for listening to the Church News podcast. I‘m Church News reporter Mary Richards. I hope you learned something today about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and had your faith in the Savior increase by looking through the Church News window as a living record of the Restoration. Please subscribe, rate and review this podcast so it can be accessible to more people. And if you enjoyed the messages we shared today, please share the podcast with others. Thanks to our guests; to my producer, KellieAnn Halvorsen; and to others who make this podcast possible. Join us every week for a new episode. Find us on your favorite podcasting channels or with other news and updates about the Church on TheChurchNews.com or on the Church News app.
