Continually Adapting

The world is always changing. Now that we have access to the digital world, things change even faster. New trends, inventions, businesses, digital tools come and go faster than ever before. It is hard to get used to these changes as they come more quickly each year. As the race to be better designed, faster, and more popular quickens, companies continue to produce, produce, and produce. I think a new iPhone comes out every year. We have to become more adaptable.

But this isn't new. We are used to change. New car models come out each year and we are used to this. We get older and experience new things at each crossroad in our life. We experience new things every day. Our existence is always changing so that we can grow. So that we can improve ourselves. With this quickly changing society, we have the chance to improve ourselves at a faster rate. But it is also important that we keep principles and regulate our changes.

In Jan Pinborough's article Keeping Safe and Balanced in a Google-YouTube-Twitter-Facebook-iEverything World in the February 2012 Ensign she acknowledges the fast pace of our digital world. She explains that while there are apps for everything, there is still a way to stay grounded while using all the new effects of digital culture.

And, like a nuclear reaction that can power whole cities—and level them—they [digital technologies] have vast powers for good and ill.
They can keep us in touch with loved ones far away—and isolate us from those in our own homes.
They can save us time in paying bills and reading the news—and consume it in answering e-mails and posting status updates.
They can help us study and share the gospel—and cause us to idle away our time and drive away the Spirit.
They can mobilize us to serve others—and keep us self-absorbed, focused on an unending stream of meaningless minutiae.
They can educate, energize, elevate, and inspire us—and they can distract, enervate, addict, and destroy us.
Around the Church, members are using digital technologies in innovative ways. They show Mormon Message videos in family home evening, reach out to ward members via social networks and text messaging, and work on family history via the Internet.

Through acknowledging the power of our digital technologies and keeping ourselves grounded with a few of her suggested rules, we can really empower ourselves through the use of digital media. I plan to outline a lot of her suggestions in our discussions with families in our webinars and fireside. Setting principles of safety and regulating use can help the family to use digital media in a positive way. Maybe the best way to set rules of safety would be to go through her article as a family in Family Home Evening and outline and highlight the rules that will be kept as a family.