I asked my mom if people use smart phones a lot in sacrament meeting. My memories of sm were off constantly being bored and seeking distraction. She was adamant that no one ever did such a thing.

When I went around Christmas time to church with my parents, there was a really nice program with music and nice Christmas talks. Still boring, but probably one of the least boring of the year.

I noticed at least 50% of adults were using smart phones for most of the time. They were fairly discreet and tried to hide the usage. I can see his you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it. People with small kids seemed to not use them, the were to busy trying to keep their kids from misbehaving.

What have you noticed? I think it's a great thing. If I could have didn't every Sunday playing video games it might have been quite nice.

I want to hear if the church goers among us see a lot of smart phone usage too? Does 50% seem the same as your experience?

A Presbyterian co-worker did that thing of going to an LDS service if our LDS co-worker went to 1st Presbyterian downtown. The thing that negatively impressed my Presbyterian friend was how the Mormon meetings were so mind-numbing and irreverent. His chief complaint was that no one even pretended to be paying attention, and everyone was using some device rather than try to pay attention. He claimed that the guy beside him was using his smart phone to shop for guns on-line.

Regarding even PRETENDING to be interested I can honestly say that unless one of my friends or one of the youth in the ward were speaking... I was more than happy to read my lesson, be on my iPad or simply taking a nap.

I did not hide my disinterest or alternative activity.

Mormon sacrament meetings are the most boring and least spiritual experiences.

There are very real advantages to having paid clergy who prepare sermons and dedicate more, rather than less, of their weekly hours on spiritual pursuits.

When I was 16, I snuck a small transistor radio (a new thing at the time -- boy I'm old) into sacrament meeting, while I was sitting at the sacrament table to bless it.
It was football season, and the playoffs, and my Vikings were playing. I kept the radio on with an earphone, and would sneak it into my ear to hear the score every few minutes. I thought nobody had noticed and I'd gotten away with it.

After the meeting was over, the 1st counselor in the bishopbric came to me, patted my pocket where the radio was, and wagged his finger in front of me. Then he said, "Who won?"
"Vikings! On to the super bowl!" I said.
He just smiled and walked away -- probably wishing he'd had a radio during the boring as hell meeting.

Too bad the Vikings lost to the Raiders in the super bowl :(

That reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Homer does the same thing with Bart's Walkman. I believe it was the episode where Bart cuts off the Jebidiah Springfield statue's head.

But to get back on topic, I never once took an iPhone into church, but that's only because the iPhone didn't even exist yet. I haven't been to SUCKrament meeting since the mid-1990s. I might have once tried to sneak a Game Boy in though.

Instead, I usually drew pictures on the mostly blank back page of the S/M program. Then there was that one Sunday when they passed out written lyrics of a new hymn that we were to learn, so I found a pencil and rewrote some of those lyrics in an amusing way. I suspect that's the origin of a lot of the Salamander Mormies hymn parodies.

Many people in our ward have tablets so you see kids playing games, adults getting their lessons ready and general internet surfing.
I'd say 50% is pretty close.

To my way of thinking, if you are a believer and you are normally spending the church meeting on your phone or tablet, why bother attending?

summer Wrote:
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> To my way of thinking, if you are a believer and
> you are normally spending the church meeting on
> your phone or tablet, why bother attending?

Why, to keep up appearances of course! :)

LOL, when we went, we gave our two youngest their kindle. They wouldn't sit still and hated it for obvious reasons. One of the families in front of us had their kids playing with play dough. I didn't care, I actually was more interested in watching the 8 year old actually make pretty decent scupltures out of it. They also cleaned up very well and you couldn't tell they were there after. Plus what do you expect, you pretty much hear the same thing every week. It's the church of Joseph Smith of Latter Day Saints.

This may explain why some people keep going, and refuse to look at anything that would sway their testimony.

They really have no clue how boring church is because they aren't bored. They're busy online. It may be one of the few times they can go online and not be disturbed.

I suppose it's one way of staying mormon and not making any waves by leaving. I think they're setting a great example for their kids. I can see the kids growing up and realizing they can stay home and go online. No church excuse needed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2016 11:28AM by madalice.

used to surf rfm in sac meeting... the pages looked generic like scriptures or lds-dot-org so who knew

A few years ago, I attended SM while visiting one of my college-student children who was still LDS. It was a student ward.

ALL of them had devices, mostly tablets and smartphones. A few brought e-readers or very small laptops. Some of the ones near me were accessing scriptures, talks, and other church materials on their devices, but I'd bet just as many were using their devices as a coping strategy.

AHA...cud this percentage indicate the number who attend for family reasons??...After being away from it following joes dreams of multiple wife hell i was shocked at how noisy and disrespectful meetings were...that was twenty years ago before cell phones snd tablets...im sure its worse now...dam you angry birds...dam you candy crush...truly these are tools of Stan...in plyg meetings you cudda heard a pin drop for four hours of bum numbing pervaricating...course for all the kids they have youll see em more than hear em

A while back a TBM friend of mine commented about the wide usage of smart phones and iPads during sacrament meeting in his ward.

I said, "Hell...if back in the day I would have had an iPad to look at in church, I might still be a member."

He said, "Well, I can arrange to have an iPad for you if that will get you to come back."

I said, "Nawwwww...better not. I doubt the couple sitting behind me would appreciate the porn I was watching...at least the wife probably wouldn't."

He was left speechless shaking his head. LOL!!!!

I'd say 50% is pretty close. The rest are asleep, coloring, reviewing lessons, etc... The last time I spoke in church a few years ago NOBODY was looking at me. I probably could have started ranting about how nobody was listening and none of them would have noticed. It's the same every week, but the TBM saying the closing prayer always seem to mention the spirit they've felt, how they were uplifted, etc... It's all B.S. They're all just going through the motions.