and the internet passeth over me

I've been thinking about how I use the internet. The other day (March 20, 2012) Amy Petersen Jensen gave a BYU devotional on media. Jensen said many good things, but her recommendations for how we should strive to interact with media struck me in particular:

1. Choose to be a record keeper: it will build your faith and the faith of those around you.
2. Choose to engage in active media conversations and avoid passive media consumption.
3. Choose to consecrate your everyday--your thoughts, your communications, and your actions.
4. Choose to look outward in service to others for answers to your own prayers.
5. Choose to find ways and go to places and create circumstances where you can unite symbolically with our Father, and gain access to his power to help you navigate through the choices and challenges of your generation.

I love these recommendations and Jensen's second recommendation struck me in particular: am I engaging in media conversations, or am I merely a passive media user? Sadly, I think I often fall in the former category. I can use the internet to distraction. When I surf the internet I often have no desire to engage in meaningful conversation--reading celebrity news, watching TV shows, perusing Facebook--I do these things because I want to avoid engaging actively in anything. My internet surfing habits are not activities guided by overarching goals and purposes, but are rather a direct avoidance of goals and purposes.

Granted, everyone needs some down time, but how much more productive could I be if I made it a point to make my media intake always meaningful? Maybe this blog is an attempt at that...and maybe this is one more summer goal: make media meaningful.

So here are some things the internet hath brought me that I've loved and want to share with you. So here I am attempting some form of media conversation ranging from the deep to the mundane:

1) These little messages make me happy often.

2) How we use media is all the rage now. You should watch this awesome TEDTalk that my high school English teacher posted on her Facebook page. It's all about media and loneliness. Worth a ponder.

3) I need to cut back on celebrity news reading. It's one of my more worthless habits. However, this blog I do love because I think Kate Middleton is classy and she has awesome (and wowza, expensive!) clothes. For someone somewhat fashion ignorant, this is a nice break from the monotony of my own closet.

4) Please view this most gorgeous picture of my true love. Thanks for the URL Mallorie G.

Wow, this is a depressingly short list of positive internet love. Rest assured, however, that I am determined to be better. I was watching some Katie Couric snippet on Yahoo! (ironically found by some mindless internet surfing) about how 20-somethings need to form good habits now (while our brains are in their final growth spurt) else then we will be stuck with our bad habits FOREVER. So here's to being the master of internet pith, time management, and engaging in meaningful media conversations before I turn 30. Hopefully this is a first(ish) attempt of many.