From Information to KNOWLEDGE

Fact: We are held accountable for the way we use the time and information allotted to us every day.

“With greatly increased free time and vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental principles that should guide us. Temporal circumstances change, but the eternal laws and principles that should guide our choices never change.” –Dallin H. Oaks

Not only should we consider how we utilize the information that we have attained, but we should be very mindful to what types of information we are ingesting. Why even bother giving time to those things of no worth? If in order to attain knowledge we must process all of the information that we take in, why waste our time with such information that will just develop itself into useless knowledge? When it comes down to it, we should be seeking knowledge to aid us in our return to our Heavenly Father. And I think most of the time we (youth) find ourselves wasting our time with what is honestly USELESS information. Whether it be comedy, or random facts, or inappropriately entertaining media I believe it is causing us to waste our precious time which should be filled with more meaningful and constructive information. This really hit me hard while I was listening to this talk. I, myself, need to be more mindful in what I spend my time watching and reading every day.

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Going on youtube is probably going to be one of the most difficult, as it always seems to know exactly what I want to watch next (as I’m sure it happens to everyone!). Also, groups and pages on instagram and facebook that just keep me occupied and busy with things that I don’t really care about! Without any intentions to buy anything (or any money either) I for some reason enjoy seeing what people are selling on “BYU-H Sell Your Stuff” group page. Sometimes I find steals that I might need in the future, but I never end up buying it anyways! So why do I waste my time on it so much?!

Elder Dallin H. Oaks taught this principle with a personal story of how he had spent hours studying through hundreds of law books to prepare himself for an assigned paper. When afterwards, he realized that if he had just known what he was looking for beforehand, he could have filtered through the books to waste less time and study only those things pertinent to his paper’s topic. We need to do the same thing: Decide what we NEED to study (Academic and Gospel knowledge, specifically) instead of just studying everything wordly from movie facts to celebrity gossip.

In response to this personal breakthrough with my use of my time, I have started following all of the gospel and scripture related twitter pages I can, to keep myself focused on the Savior throughout the day and not get distracted with the unimportant things in the world. We must establish priorities within every aspect of our lives. And God’s work should always be first.

I believe time-wasting is the greatest downfall of our generation. It’s not so much the social-media platforms or how often we check them, or how dependent our lives are on them. It’s how we utilize our time with all of them! If only we could watch ourselves so much more carefully and make the best of our time. Kids would be spending so much less time on their computers at home, and so much more time getting to know each other and serving their fellow man. So, just as we’ve been learning in our awesome Psychology of Social Media class, we need to learn how to use social-media tools (and technology) in a healthy manner and avoid those things that are of no worth to us.

When I have the opportunity to teach my own children, I plan to teach them time-management. In that they devote their time to those things pertinent to the kingdom of God first.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” 3 Nephi 13:33

In conclusion, I’d like to share THIS VIDEO with you. A very dear friend of mine emailed it to me a couple of months ago, and Brother Kinghorn mentioned the story during our class the other day.