We Must Admit That We Are Weak

It is amazing how easily we can become addicted to video games, pornography, and other things that have no lasting benefit for us.  Many people often choose to give up enriching, worth-while activities for addictions that will never give them the satisfaction that they can receive from having relationships with real people and achieving goals in the real world.  It seems foolish that someone would sacrifice an eternal marriage for an addiction to pornographic images.  It also seems foolish that someone would give up an education or let their career suffer because they cannot limit the time they spend playing video games.  Although is seems obvious that these addictions are foolish, there are a lot of people who succumb to them.  Let us remember these words of Jesus Christ: "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41).  We need to recognize that we have weaknesses and be careful not visit inappropriate websites or spend more time than we should playing video games or doing other things that have no lasting benefit.  Otherwise we will waste away and ruin our lives through addictive behavior that will only cause us regret.

Should Schools Spend Their Money On Tablets?

What The Internet Has Accomplished

The Internet has torn down many barriers that have always hindered communication.  It has minimized the amount of cost, time, and effort required to share information.  As a result, it has connected people around the world.  Because of the Internet's ability to connect groups of people,  new innovative ideas have been able to develop more quickly and support groups have been able to form more effectively.  The Internet's ability to share information easily has enabled news to spread  instantaneously and has given the average person the opportunity to be heard.  The Internet has made it easy for us to share knowledge and learn about almost anything.  It has become so useful that many of us can no longer imagine living without it.  The Internet's ability to facilitate communication has impacted the world in many ways.  Although it has presented new problems and dangers to society that we need to deal with, it has more importantly provided new tools that have improved society.  It is exciting to watch the Internet develop and see how it changes the world.

Let Others Study What They Want

We all know what it is like to be criticized for our educational choices.  Such criticism causes a lot of students to educate themselves in things that the general public considers to be pragmatic instead of things that actually interest them.  Women receive this sort of criticism even more than men do.  Public opinion and peer pressure often discourage women from pursuing an education in math, engineering, and the sciences even if they are interested in these fields.  This is a shame because the world could benefit greatly if a larger portion of women were to contribute their efforts to researching these topics.  Women naturally see things differently and they have different concerns than men do.  These differences could help women make new discoveries and solve new problems.  We all need to keep our minds open and not criticize others for their educational choices.  By not criticizing others' choices, we will allow them to use their natural interests, talents, and abilities to make the world a better place.

Overcoming Evil With Good

People around the world use the internet to find the answers to their questions.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints understands this and it wants to be the first source of information that answers the questions that people have about it.  It knows that there is a lot of false content about the church on the internet and that the only way to beat it is to dominate it.   This is why it puts so much effort into marketing mormon.org and why it now has missionaries who spend two years of their lives chatting with people online.  The church recognizes that as the internet grows, more people will discover the church and have questions about it.  This is why the it encourages its members to actively use social media to teach others about its beliefs and spread its message.  I invite Christians everywhere to join the church in its efforts to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the internet.  As we follow its example and use the internet and other new technologies to share the Gospel, we will help the church overcome those that try so hard to lead men away from Jesus Christ.

Who Does Copyright Protect

Copyright was designed to protect artists, authors, and innovators, but today it often only protects the profits of large corporations.  One example is the music industry.  Music artists struggle to survive because the majority of the money made from selling their music goes to large record companies.  Artists may get as little as 6% of the money made from their music sales even though it is their music.  Because of this, many musicians eventually give up their dreams of creating new music.  In the end, everyone (except for maybe the record companies) loses because talented artists stop giving the world their music.  Imagine all of the music we have missed out on because the music industry has driven musicians to stop pursuing their talents.

Thank You Open Source

I am amazed by the amount of free software that is available to everyone.  Thanks to Linux and other open-source projects, anyone can set up a computer with a reliable operating system, word processor, email client and web browser for free.  I am also amazed by the quality of this software.  Such software obviously requires a lot of work to develop.  Why is it, then, that it is released to the public for free?  It is because it was developed by the public.  Because this software is open-source, anyone who is interested can view its source code, find solutions to its bugs, and contribute to its development.  Giving the source code to the world offers computer lovers everywhere the opportunity to make the world a better place by giving it free, useful software that can be used for inexpensive web servers and personal computers.  I want to thank everyone who has contributed to open-source software.  Your contributions truly have positively affect the world in more ways than anyone could have ever imagined.