Advocating with Social Media

Even though the focus of Elder Bednar’s talk To Sweep the Earth as with a Flood is sharing the gospel, how did he connect that doing family advocacy work using social media is, in effect, sharing the gospel?
Social media is where people are at.  More and more people are connected online then they are in person.  There are so many great things we can do on social media to share the gospel.  The church has so many great videos that would be easily attachable to any post, and there are so many topics they cover.  I don't know about you, but I'm a visual person so I was made available to some of these movies they would leave an impression on me.  In fact right now, my neighbor's dad will soon be passing away.  I've been trying to find something that could touch her life at this trying time. 
Even though it is scary everything that is out there to tempt us, there are so many great things we can be involved in.  Satan progresses his work along, but the church is pushing forward with so many great tools.  For example the missionaries are now given I-Pads to help in teaching the gospel.  I was a missionary and it would have been so great to share these great videos with those that we were teaching. 
Family History has been able to take huge leaps and bounds with today's technology.  We have been able to update records, index and find our ancestors like never before. I also testify with Elder Bednar who has given a great promise to the youth should they get involved in this great work.  He says: 
"It is no coincidence that FamilySearch and other tools have come forth at a time when young people are so familiar with a wide range of information and communication technologies. Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.
As you respond in faith to this invitation, your hearts shall turn to the fathers. The promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be implanted in your hearts. Your patriarchal blessing, with its declaration of lineage, will link you to these fathers and be more meaningful to you. Your love and gratitude for your ancestors will increase. Your testimony of and conversion to the Savior will become deep and abiding. And I promise you will be protected against the intensifying influence of the adversary. As you participate in and love this holy work, you will be safeguarded in your youth and throughout your lives."
I think that is a beautiful promise.  We will be protected for the rest of our lives.  Who couldn't benefit from this promise.  I would love to get my kids involved early so that they can have this blessing.  Even though there are some bad things with social media, this is another way to progress the work of the Lord.  It also opens doors to the church in countries that won't allow the missionaries. 

What has been your primary purpose for using technology, social media, and the Internet? Has it been to uplift and edify, or to isolate and idle? How could you improve in your stewardship over these technological blessings the Lord has given us?
Right now most of online time is spent doing school work.  I have chosen not to have any social media accounts because I don't want to waste my time with them.  I see so often how it takes over your life.  I will probably have to get into social media once my kids discover it so that I can follow them and monitor their online activity.  I find myself always turning to my phone or the internet or something.  It is almost a little scary how dependent we become.  My ear has been trained to listen to the chime of my phone lately. I don't like how that is happening. I'm tempted to turn my phone off completely and only check in occasionally throughout the day.  This would help me connect better with my own kids.  I would say that being in school, especially at BYU-Idaho has been very edifying, but it has also been very time consuming.  I feel like I'm going good on the computer, and I'm in safe places, but is it is habit forming.  It seems that every semester there is one day that is a bigger cruncher than the rest where I will put my family to bed and stay up to finish some assignment (like this one:))  That is creating a bad habit of being plugged in right before bed time.  This doesn't help with restful sleep.  I will definitely have to make some changes once I'm done with school. I would like to unplug more and connect with those right here.  Also when I'm done with school I would like to do indexing in my spare time.  I love all the material the church has and have even shared some of these messages with friends who aren't of our faith.

What connections did you see between Jennifer Aaker’s video and Elder Bednar’s article?
Our efforts online and in social media will have a ripple effect.  We might share it with someone.  They are touched with it that they share it with someone so that we are able to reach so many more people throughout the world.  We can do so much good in the world be standing up for our beliefs and sharing them.  In the social media setting it seems like that isn't as hard as it is in inviting someone to your home to hear the missionaries.  There is not commitment, there is no awkwardness when they decline.  As we share our messages we are planting seeds that might grow with that person or someone else.