Why I Love General Conference

Yes! Another post about Conference. Can you blame me? Conference is awesome!! I look forward to it like Christmas! Lemme tell ya why.

In my opinion, Conference is everything the media needs to be. I love having the opportunity to watch inspiring messages back to back. I never watch 8 hours of television over the weekend except for General Conference time. It's TV viewing that is actually fulfilling and leaves you with a desire to do and to be a better person. That's what the best kind of media does for you. It inspires you to change and inspires you to act. I can't think of any media that does that better than General Conference.

This Conference weekend was particularly fun. The last time General Conference rolled around I was still on my mission in Tennessee and had no access to social media. I watched every talk with other people in mind; I wanted to know what I could share with investigators to help bring them closer to Christ. This time I had no investigators, but I had a few of them as friends on Facebook, along with several others that I had taught on my mission. I thought I could use that to my advantage this time.

I had Facebook open almost the entire time and went to town. I updated my status with new inspiring messages every ten to fifteen minutes. My friends were doing the same thing. At the same time, memes with inspiring messages were springing up all over my feed, people were discussing spirituality, and everyone was "liking" each other's statuses. My Facebook feed has never been more inspirational.

It was so cool! Sometimes around Conference time I would hop on Facebook and I would see several statuses in my feed bashing the Church, its leaders, and my beliefs. I used to avoid Facebook during Conference time for that particular reason. I love how I can now use it as a tool for good. I believe this is what the Brethren had in mind when they asked us to use social media to share our messages with the world. Imagine if everyone's Facebook feed looked like mine did over the weekend. The world would be a much less hateful place. Social media can be a powerful tool! Let's use it for good!