rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 Our missionaries (Arizona Tempe mission) told me that they had a big meeting with some general authorities this week and were told that the Church is having them not use any social media for two months while they develop more detailed guidelines, instructions, and protocols. Is this just for our area, or is this a universal thing? Thanks!
ksfisher Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 The missionaries in our area (Salt Lake Mission) have never started using social media.
ALarson Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 I've read that this is going on in most missions that had already received ipads. Some say that it's because missionaries have been able to figure out how to get around the controls and others say that missionaries have been spending too much time on facebook. But, who knows?
Duncan Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 I think it's regional, here they are supposed to use social media but they just use FB primarily but they don't go on it everyday-it's up to them
rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 It sounds like it will take a while to filter up to the hinterlands of Canada, Duncan! Someone PM'd me a collection of statements gleaned from missionary blogs from around the country (New York, Philadelphia, Arizona, etc.) indicating similar moves (two month pause in all Facebook/social media work, detailed guidelines and enhanced controls, etc.). My hope is that the iPad stuff eventually dies out completely.
ksfisher Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) My hope is that the iPad stuff eventually dies out completely. Why? Do you mean the missionaries using Ipads or not using them correctly? Edited March 6, 2015 by ksfisher
Duncan Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 It sounds like it will take a while to filter up to the hinterlands of Canada, Duncan! Someone PM'd me a collection of statements gleaned from missionary blogs from around the country (New York, Philadelphia, Arizona, etc.) indicating similar moves (two month pause in all Facebook/social media work, detailed guidelines and enhanced controls, etc.). My hope is that the iPad stuff eventually dies out completely. hah! they have been saying for two years now that the missionaries will be getting ipads but so far bupkus!
rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 Well, they may not get them at all, now. Which isn't a bad thing, in my book.
ksfisher Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 Well, they may not get them at all, now. Which isn't a bad thing, in my book. Why do you think it's a bad idea?
cinepro Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 The missionary iPad program (where missionaries buy their own iPads, the Mission locks them down to restrict access, and missionaries use them for study and teaching) has been put on hold in our local mission before it even got started. Apparently the initial experience was that the lock down was ineffective, but I haven't heard if the missionaries were just wasting time with them (video games and YouTube), using them to contact people back home when they weren't supposed to, or using them to access verboten materials (anti-Mormon, pornography etc.). I've heard stories of other missions suspending the program as well. Does anyone have local missionaries with their own iPads, and if so, how is it going?
rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 Why do you think it's a bad idea?1) Missionaries are *always* on their devices in public (playing on them, legitimately looking up things, messing around with Siri, etc.). It looks bad. 2) It breeds incompetence and over-reliance on the devices. Last week, when I was doing splits with the missionaries, my missionary told me that he can't imagine doing missionary work without his device. His incredulity at what I had to endure with a paper area book, road maps, paper scriptures, etc. only deepened as we talked. He said that he never reads scriptures except on his device. The irony is that when the devices are down, they act completely paralyzed. Once, both of their devices were "down" because their info hadn't "synched." They had no idea what to do, and didn't know their way around the neighborhoods "without instruments." I had a paper copy of the ward list in the car, and we looked through it to find inactives or partial-member families to visit. 3) Our missionaries only ever show Mormon Messages on their devices. We have never had an original thought out of the scriptures or out of their own hearts/minds. A ward mission leader in a neighboring ward told his missionaries to stop showing videos because an investigator had told him that "the missionaries are okay, I guess, but they sure like videos, don't they?" They, too, constantly showed Mormon Messages clips when teaching him.
Buckeye Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 hah! they have been saying for two years now that the missionaries will be getting ipads but so far bupkus! We're still shut out in Ohio as well. And now the church wifi is blocking literally everything - including lds.org.
ALarson Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 We're still shut out in Ohio as well. And now the church wifi is blocking literally everything - including lds.org. it does look like they are putting more controls on the new ipads (if they even give them back to the missionaries in a couple of months). Wouldn't it just be easier to give the missionaries some lessons that contain all of the information in the new essays so they are prepared to answer questions on these topics? Maybe this is being done in the MTC now. Does anyone know?
rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 I don't think this is due to panic over testimonies being shaken because of exposure to critical material. I think they've discovered that 18-21 year-olds in 2015 doing "social media missionary work" leads to compulsive playing, bad teaching skills, etc. I think they'll try a "reboot" in two months, like they're saying, with some adjustments. My fifteen year-old doesn't want to use an iPad on his mission (my kids don't have a cell phone or device, much to the shock of their peers). I wonder if being "old-school" (using paper and pen/pencil to schedule, keep records, etc.) would be considered insubordinate? You would have to type in the area book info later, since the only area books right now are on the devices, but I see no reason why a missionary would *have to* use his iPad. My son is appalled that no missionaries use scriptures any more (that we have seen ---- they use their devices to look up scriptures, even in lessons), and our whole family has been shocked by the "Mormon Message moment" thoughts that they all use now. When I ran this by a missionary I was doing splits with last week, he said that not using the iPad would not be allowed. That was before the slew of meetings around the country over the last couple of weeks, though.
Buckeye Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 This reminds me of the time Joseph was asked about how he keeps his children safe on the internet. He replied, "I teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves."
Ham Clam Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 A friend in the New York area said her mission area was taking a three month break.
rongo Posted March 6, 2015 Author Posted March 6, 2015 Are they not using devices *at all*, or is this just with Facebook and social media? Maybe they want to see how the kids react to using paper scriptures and not relying on Mormon Messages.
ksfisher Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 Maybe they want to see how the kids react to using paper scriptures and not relying on Mormon Messages. Since there are missions that have never received ipads I don't think this is the reason. Our stake has been waiting for our missionaries to receive ipads for a couple of years. From what I understand this will make the area book accessible to ward leaders and hopefully make it possible to coordinate the work to an even greater extent. I'm sorry to hear that all the bugs haven't been worked out of the program. Personally I read my scriptures exclusively on my ipad, I don't think I've touched my paper copy in three or four years. I can make all the notes pertaining to a scripture that I want, unmark a scripture if I feel like it, and create my own cross references. You can also carry 40 years of general conference addresses with you and not have to lug around a suitcase. I can understand how it would be easy for some missionaries to carry things a bit too far.
rayhale Posted March 6, 2015 Posted March 6, 2015 There are definite pros and cons of having iPads, and computers in general on a mission. One of the first things I thought of, when I heard that missionaries would be having iPads was, it will put a target on missionaries, in effect saying, "I have an expensive toy in my backpack, please steal from me." So hopefully some of the reason of the scale down is to think of missionary safety and also the safety of the information on the iPads themselves, this way people can't 'hack' into the information, or when stolen, the missionaries can erase all the info on the iPad.
carbon dioxide Posted March 7, 2015 Posted March 7, 2015 Its a good thing I went on my mission when I did. I don't use Facebook or Twitter and don't use an iPad or a smartphone. I don't even like laptops. I am a desktop guy forever.
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