Shall the Youth of Zion Falter?

NO!

I love the story told in this post, as well as the beautiful stories in the comments. It reminds me that, even though I'm just a few years out of being a youth myself, I need to step it up. The media wants us to believe that teens are just causing problems, but there is so much good that they do. Stories like these give me so much hope for the future and push me to do and be better myself. I need to be prepared to parent youth like these one day!

The church is true.

Thin-ideal media...and parenting

I haven't blogged in forever since I'm not in the media class or TAing for it anymore, which kind of makes me sad. So I think I may still post something occasionally so that can remember things I've found that I think are cool. I mean, I am still bombarded by media daily. I should still be an active consumer. :-)

I stumbled across this blog post a week ago, when it was linked from the Operation Beautiful website. I subscribe to the Operation Beautiful blog just because seeing those notes each day makes me smile. I loved this post because we had talked some in class about how hard it is being surrounded by thin-ideal media and how we could handle it as parents. During that discussion, I really had no idea how I would handle it as a mother when my girls feel like they are fat and ugly. This post really has some good suggestions, though. I may just have to use them one day...

Article by Orson Scott Card

I know we're pretty much done posting blogs, but I was on Faceboook today and one of my friends posted a link to an article Orson Scott Card wrote for Mormon Times. It was too beautiful to not share. I'm grateful she posted it because I never would have found it on my own. I also thought that by posting it here, I can look back on it later and not lose it. This article really makes me feel better about my life, in a way. I move so much (I've moved 6 times since I've been at college, and I moved plenty with my family before that) and this reminded me that it's okay to let people drift in and out of our lives. It's not reason to feel guilty. It's actually a cause for celebration. I've made so many amazing friends throughout my life and even though I don't keep in touch with all of them, they have helped to make me who I am today.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

Thanks, Steve Jobs!

My aunt posted this link on Facebook. I'm not really an Apple user, but I really appreciate what Apple is doing. I think more companies should follow suit, especially knowing what we know about how pornography affects people.

Freedom from Porn

Media at the Gym

So, for those of you who didn't hear me complaining in class last week about how sore I was (sorry about that, by the way...I got better!), I joined a gym last week. I've never been one for a traditional gym experience. I swam all during high school, but I've never been super into cardio machines or weights. However, I know that I need to work out, so I joined a gym. It's not my favorite thing, but one thing that really helps me during my workouts is having music.

I think I'm one of the last people who doesn't own any sort of iPod. However, my phone is able to store music on it (super grateful for that). It also has this really cool feature called "SensMe" where it plots all the songs on a graph of fast to slow and happy to sad. You can then use that to create a playlist of upbeat or slower songs as you feel like it. It's not always super accurate, but it's been good to have. I find myself working out longer than I planned on if I am listening to upbeat music. The music is able to distract me from any pain I may be feeling and keep my energy levels up. It's also fun to watch the TVs that are set up in front of the cardio machines. I may not know what's going on, since I don't plug in to listen, but it's fun imagining what may be happening. Thank you media, for making my workouts (at least slightly) more enjoyable.

Virtual Choir

I love music. I love going to concerts and am almost always listening to music on my computer while on the web or doing homework. I can't really picture my life without using Windows Media Player/iTunes, Pandora, and YouTube. But one thing that really amazes me is how technology has made music even cooler. In this post, I talked briefly about some awesome mash-ups I love. This sort of music wouldn't have been possible that long ago. And I just heard about another use of technology to create music that also wouldn't have been possible until recently.

From what I understand, people sang a certain song and then posted themselves singing it on YouTube. Then, all of these videos were put together and made into one song. Suddenly, you have a virtual choir with people from all over the world. Awesome! Technology is amazing!

The Photoshop Effect

I found this video interesting, especially in light of our upcoming health concerns lecture. So many people try to look like the celebrities on TV and in magazines and it's impossible. I wish more girls would understand that and stop stressing about their weight and body and just worry about healthy. (I know, I know...easier said than done!)