WhyNottMe?

Tech turn off

Sunday, December 11th, 2011 | Rants

As many of you know, I am a very active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints.  My wife and I  attend church weekly.  We are primary teachers.  For those of you who don’t know much about the LDS church, Primary is the sunday school classes for children ages 12 and younger.

We, the teachers, are given manuals filled with lesson plans and activities for teaching about Christ’s church and teaching to the children.  Along with the manual, we have pictures we show, scriptures we reference, talks we quote, and songs we sing.  That’s a lot of books to carry.  So, what do I use, that’s right, my iPhone.  In our primary class we have one student who even brings an iPod touch to class and uses that for his scriptures.  I encourage it.  We have a reward system for those who remember to bring their scriptures and one time he was not rewarded for having his iTouch because it wasn’t charged.

Well, after class we have a reunion of half the primary classes for one final class of the day.  (the other half meets before us.  there are a lot of kids in primary.)  Today we had a scripture chase game.  that’s where a reference is given and the children have to look it up, the first one to get it wins.  The primary president excluded those that had been using mobile devices for scriptures.

I understand that older generations have a hard time seeing technology as anything but a toy, and that women (typically) have a hard time accepting that as well, and maybe that’s what we were seeing today, but it seemed to juvenile of her to just exclude them.

This world isn’t traveling in a direction of continued paper use.  We are moving away from our books and pulling out our mobile devices, e-readers, laptops, and tablets to information and entertainment.  on my phone I can carry hundreds of pounds of information in my small 4.9 oz device.  It’s convenient, easier to use, more compact, and frankly, smarter to use these devices than to carry books.

I’m not banishing books to the darkest corners.  I have a hard time believing books will stop existing, but I do have a hard time believe you’ll see books on the go as much, and possibly at some point, never again.  We’re moving fast to a mobile information planet.  Accept that.  it’s not sacrilegious, it’s not offensive, it’s not even a personal insult, it’s brilliant!  Every child in primary could have one, it would have all their scriptures, hymns, friend magazines (a religious publication of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later day Saints), and other little helps in class.  It’s an enabling tool, opening up a world of information to you with just a swipe of your finger tips.

So, you older generations who despise the ease ability of our new technology, try it out, adapt it, and see why we prefer to carry an iphone in our pocket than 15 books under our arm!

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