I like this comment that our mission president told us. We've been born in a time where the computer has entered into our homes, lives, and even our pockets. Computers tell our cars when to inject fuel, and in what cuantities. I'm sitting among about a dozen computers in a library, probably more powerful than anything anyone 30 years ago dreamed of. Our cell phones are a marvel of miniature computer. President Schaefermeyer was talking about his new IPad when he told us this quote. A little computer, the size of a clipboard. For $20 dollars, I can buy a thumb drive with the same amount of memory as my laptop from 10 years ago. (The said laptop was not very good, but better than nothing. I wonder what Dad did with it.) The Japanese K computer is capable of doing 8.126 quadrillion computations per second. I fully plan on building my own computer when I get back, maybe cut a window in the side, make it look good and run better. (No, not better than the K computer. Just better than it looks.)
Now, this is all amazing. If you had taken a man from 100 years ago, and shown him a cell phone and all that they can do nowadays, he'd probably think it was magic or a trick. Heck, same for 50 years ago. Maybe even 20. The modern technology is the science fiction of the past. (It kind of makes me question how come we're still using the same basic internal combustion engine as we were 50 years ago. Bring on the flying cars, already, and flight control can go hang.)
With all these things, we can do a lot. I can get on a computer and in seconds find out the family geneology of seconds. I can play any number of free games. (Newgrounds, anyone?) I can read blogs about cooking, a girl named Ryan, the gospel, how various things relate to other things. I can go to http://www.topwebcomics.com/ to find out which comic people think is best, and perhaps vote to try to change things. I can, and on occasion have, passed many hours in front of a flickering screen leveling up a character so I can get that next magic item. (Dragonfable. Doom weapons. 28,000 GP. 'Nuff said.)
Nowadays, the problem isn't so much whether the information is out there, but how fast you can find it. (Want to know the capital of Uganda? Let's time how long it takes for me to find it. Kampala, Uganda. Took me about six seconds to find it, and five of those were to type "Capital of Uganda" into the Google search bar.)
"Tragically, the same computer and Internet service that allows me to do my family history and prepare those names for temple work could, without filters and controls, allow my children or grandchildren access to a global cesspool of perceptions that could blast a crater in their brains forever." That's what Elder Holland said in his April 2010 discourse, Place No More For the Enemy Of My Soul.
Satan has been trying and suceeding to infiltrate the world with the sleazy tendrils of pornography. Avoid it as you would a dreadful poison. That is what it is, and there is all there is to it.
Read the talk. Remember what you could be doing to yourself and to others.
Or, you could just watch the video.
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