What I've learned from Mindful Writing

I've only ever been 'mindful' about my writing in English class, when writing stories, when writing papers, etc. In English class, I think about ethos, pathos, logos, audience, tone, etc. But outside class I never gave these things much conscious thought. I would write emails, messages, chemistry homework, journal entries, letters, cards, social media posts etc. all the time, not thinking much about how I was writing them or how to improve. But Mindful Writing made me realize that these basic elements of writing are applicable and necessary to all forms of writing. Even if it is simply a shopping list, the audience matters; a shopping list will look very different if it is intended for someone else to use, as opposed to just me. So I guess I was considering these elements of writing, or at least some of them, but not 'mindfully,' not consciously. Mindfully writing everything, not only English assignments, will improve how I write every day.

To Sweep the Earth with Things as They Really Are: a response to Elder Bednar's talks

The tone in the two talks contrasted greatly, as if Bednar’s first reaction to technology was negative, and then after considering its potential, he realized that perhaps he shouldn’t scare people away quite so firmly. Things As They Really Are raises an apostolic warning against technology, while To Sweep The Earth as with a Flood encourages Latter Day Saints to embrace it.

What stuck out to me the most in Things as They Really Are was the accuracy of some of Elder Bednar’s assessments and predictions, especially regarding the danger of investing too much time and especially emotion in video games and the like. He never explicitly states addiction, but he does mention ‘the addicting effect’ of video games. Although Internet and video game addiction wasn’t a mainstream idea or worry in 2009, when Elder Bednar gave this address, the problem and awareness of it has increased exponentially since then. Many studies have been are being carried out regarding internet and video game addiction, and they show that indeed, internet addiction is legitimate, showing many of the same symptoms and withdrawal effects of drugs. 

Another accurate warning that Elder Bednar warned against is the danger of anonymity. Elder Bednar’s warning to ‘remember, however, that apostasy is not anonymous simply because it occurs in a blog or through a fabricated identity,’ applies even more today than it did when he gave it. Today, there is a culture among some internet users of ‘trolling,’ which to a large extent, consists of extreme cyberbullying, made possible by the disguise of anonymity. This type of cyberbullying has had disastrous consequences, including encouraging people to commit suicide, causing people to be afraid of speaking against social injustice, encouraging other internet users to cyberbully, and more. Elder Bednar’s warning has never been more true.

After the grave warning of the first talk, Bednar’s follow-up talk takes a much more optimistic tone. Whereas ‘Things as They Really Are’ warns of the negative implications of the modern world, ‘To Sweep the Earth with a Flood’ celebrates the possibilities. Elder Bednar starts off by outlining spiritual achievements, saying that “a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place”. He then quotes Brigham Young, saying “Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind has been given by direct revelation from God,” suggesting that the development of technology was guided by God, then encouraging Church members to use technology and social media to spread the gospel online.

Taken together, the talks warn against using technology incorrectly, and instead gives us a better outlet than video games and constructing false identities: ‘becoming Facebook friends with the missionaries in your area on your own computers and sharing their gospel messages online.’