Student Presentations

Last week, we had some interesting presentations on many facets of social media. Each student found an academic study and after giving the class a summary, applied it to sharing the gospel using the Internet. There were some really useful applications. I'm going summarize some of the things I learned during the presentations that occurred last Tuesday and Thursday.

The amount of Facebook use is astounding. Every day, the average user is on Facebook for 3.46 hours and logs on 4.19 times. Of all the 4 million Facebook users, half check their account every day. That means 2 million people check Facebook daily! This is a huge tool for connecting to A LOT of people in order to spread a message.

Obviously, there is a social need that is being met by Facebook. People feel that they connect with others and are identified by them. However, according to one presentation, the quality of relationships that are formed on the Internet are questionable. Not only are relationships on the Internet are of a poorer-quality than live relationships, Internet socialization negatively affects offline relationship. Her study found that an increase in social media use was related to an increase in depression, loneliness, and daily stress. This teaches that Facebook can reach many people, but its use should be to enhance sharing the gospel live and not replace it.

Another presentation addressed the use of Facebook profiles. It noted that people make judgments on people based on the content of their profile. In general, younger users have a more shocking or outgoing profile while older users have a more conservative approach. Many employers use Facebook to make decisions about jobs. Understanding this helps members of the church be more cautious about how they portray themselves on Facebook.

Another couple of presentations addressed social media use and political involvement. One illustrated that if Facebook is used to get information for events, the user is also more likely to be involved in politics. Social media can be used to spread political ideas. Most youth feel that they are conduits of news instead of receivers of news. This makes Facebook and other social media outlets for political activity. These sites are positively related to civic participation but not political participation or confidence.

YouTube videos were also the topic of several presentations including mine. Check mine out here. In general, we learned that popular YouTube videos are short and entertaining. Only 10% of YouTube users are uploading movies. Most are watching, so this gives those who upload videos an influence. YouTube search engines are based on the most viewed videos, so in order to have an impact, a video must be popular. This applies to any sort of YouTube video on Mormons.

Finally, we discussed the importance and use of Twitter. The article cited stated that Twitter can be cumbersome or useful depending on how one uses it. This article suggested using Twitter for learning purposes, not for useless information gathering. It can also be useful in sharing the gospel, especially during General Conference when church vocabulary is the biggest topic. The LDS website is the most visited during Conference because of social media tools like Twitter.

There was a lot to learn last week, and I got a bunch of applications to sharing the gospel online that will be useful as I continue my missionary efforts.