Comments on: The Myth of Youth

By: Vic Walker

Vic Walker — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:31:18 +0000

Gloria Hamson (http://www.ldscio.org/2007/06/05/the-myth-of-youth/#comment-1136) said she was the oldest at “over 65″, and I can tell she’s that old. Her spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar are correct. Now THAT is the true mark of a senior Saint using the Internet.

By: Joyce Conklin

Joyce Conklin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:19:06 +0000

I’ve subscribed to your blog almost since it became available, but for some reason my Yahoo RSS feed keeps saying “nothing new in the last 3 days” — finally I decided to go directly to the blog home page and found there were a plethora of entries that I’d missed because the RSS feed wasn’t showing the “headlines”. BTW, altho’ I’m not in the 15-24 demographic (by half a century!) I really use the technology — especially in my current calling as Family History consultant.
Can someone more programmer-oriented than I am either tell me what I’m doing wrong or fix the LDSTech RSS feed? Thanks.

[Joel: Hello Joyce. We changed feeds very early to this one: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ldscio. I've checked and the feed seems to be working ok. Please make sure you're subscribed to that one and let me know if you still have a problem.]

By: Jeff Hayes

Jeff Hayes — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:19:37 +0000

IM is certainly mainstream business. Granted it tends to attract younger people but the value of it in certain settings trumps email.

Now regarding Web 2.0 sites, the fact that MySpace and FaceBook are popular shows us that those who use these pages toss privacy into the wind. Certain blogs share way too much info. YouTube, though a very good portal, is a means of communicating all types of information that might be better stifled.

The coprorate blog will become mainstream. Why, because an active blog show site actitivy. One key goal of a Web site is to be found. A key metric is site activity. A corporate blog or the corporate site is constantly being added to. It generates traffic. It improves the Alexa rating. More site link to that site, say via an RSS reader. The bottomline is the business Web site is more attractive and the search engines give it a higher ranking.

By: Eric Poulin

Eric Poulin — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:10:01 +0000

I’m a Bishop in my ward and I use IM to keep in close contact with many of our youth. Oft times youth will open up there, where they are most comfortable, rather than in formal interviews or activities where everyone can see/hear. In fact, I prefer IM to the telephone and email.

By: gloria hamson

gloria hamson — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:43:42 +0000

Nope, 60 is not the oldest – there is a whole crowd of us over 65’s, including many senior missionaries serving around the world, who are grateful for lds.org particularly for helps with district and branch training. Gospel Library, the music sites, ’serving in the Church’ are accessed frequently to print out talks, teaching ideas etc. Thank you.
Personally, I have trouble finding what I want using the internal search and end up using Google Search – but I am not a tech guy – am a senior sister learning as I go.
Keep working on MOS – we need to be able to customize reports – the data is in there, but getting out what we need is the challenge.
All in all, the internet resources that are available now, compared to what we had to work with at the beginning of our first mission in 2002, are amazing and we are continually grateful.

By: Sister Phyl

Sister Phyl — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:57:59 +0000

OK, so I must be the oldest…almost 60 and have been using every form of IM, IRC, etc. since all of it debuted. I IM my kids…the 4yr grandkid hasn’t quite caught up to me, but I kept ahead of all my children until they became computer help desk people after high school. I must represent the other end of the spectrum and am still trying to drag the rest of my ward and stake (Stake Web Administrator) into the 21st century…..just give me the tools!

By: Alan Whitcomb

Alan Whitcomb — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 07:24:00 +0000

I may be a dinasour to most of you, I started using the internet in 1975 (as Stanford), and later met my eternal companion through an IRC LDS chat room (10 years ago). When Spain had their first meeting to plan a country website, a moderated chat function was proposed. The reason the idea was shot down is the problem of liability. The risk of a lion in sheeps clothing is too great. Bots can not do it (yet), they can monitor words, but not ideas – then the users easily adapt to getting around them by “psuedo-swearing” if you get my forking point.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:21:02 +0000

I may be off base on this but I kind of get the impression that a church oriented “IM Bot” would be perceived as being dorky by the youth and young adult crowd. However, a real person someone can talk to on the other end of such a thing might have credible value. I have personally known a few members who were shaky in converting from a borrowed testimony of the enviroment they were raised in, to one of their own strong enough to withstand the ills of the world. Sometimes for those coming of age it can be absolutely terrifying to consider seeing their bishop or another member that they’ve grown up with. There’s a general fear of them disappointing the leaders who have always seen or perceived them as being the ‘good mormon boy’ in their years growing up. While it isn’t the ideal enviroment to provide guideance, if someone will only speak anonymously then perhaps having someone available to answer their questions and encourage them to seek priesthood leadership isn’t that bad of an idea. However, if it were merely automated and essentially unable to express genuine care and concern for the person’s troubles, I doubt it would do any good.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:11:50 +0000

I’m 30 years old and I’ve been using Instant Messaging since I got back from my mission almost 10 years ago. I frequently use IM while I’m at work to communicate with my coworkers. Everyone on my team uses IM. It’s made our communication much more effective than it otherwise would be.

I’m a software developers and when I have a tough problem at work, I use Google to search for a solution and often that solution is found in someone’s blog. When someone has posted a particularly good solution, I usually read other posts in the blog and if the blog is informative, I’ll subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed and start reading the blog regularly. When I have a difficult problem that I solve on my own, I post the solution on my blog in the hopes that others will either benefit from it or help me find a better solution.

I don’t use MySpace but I do use other on-line networking sites such as LinkedIn.com.

I regularly buy stuff on-line. I also watch videos on-line. I’m amazed at how many trade shows and conferences publish their talks on-line. This can be a very cost effective way to keep up with the latest in just about any industry. There’s also, of course, a lot of really funny stuff on-line.

I never really considered any of these things as something that only youth participate in. These are the things that make the Internet so valuable.

By: weldon

weldon — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:23:57 +0000

I’m nearing 40, but started in high tech right when the web was born in 1993 (when I got home from my mission and started working in the university computer labs). I do all those things you mentioned every day, but I’ll admit to thinking that I was the exception for those over 30. I still run into lots of people that have no clue how to buy something on eBay but maybe I’ll have to reset my expectations.