On LDS.org there is an article about the voice of church members matters on social media. The article admits most people in the world have never heard of the church and those who have half have a negative view of the church. It also mentions most people in the world have access to a cell phone or the internet.

Basically it's the church admitting it's a nothing burger. A big fish in a little pond called Utah. So not it's asking the members to promote the church on-line.

I don't see how this will be productive at all. First people hate to talk about religion and politics and bringing up the church in some forum will just make that person seem like a zealot. I can't think of a better way to make people hate you online. Seems like the church doesn't know what to do. I just see more and more people in my immediate family leaving.

My son on a mission updated his Facebook photo...naturally, him in a suit and tie. A fellow missionary in his area posted a few missionary-type pics on his (linked to my son's page) and commented "They let us use Facebook" to help spread the gospel and it made my stomach turn.

They "let" grown men use Facebook. And for the purpose of selling the church.

Same way they "let" them call home a couple times a year.

The control of a cult. And their members can't see it in front of their faces.

When my older sibling went on his mission and it was that way for decades (it may have changed since,) they weren't allowed to watch any television or listen to the radio. That was before the internet.

No media whatsoever.

To be given permission to have access to Facebook only to promote TSCC ... well it is only going to work as far as an audience will lend its support.

Friends and family of the missionaries, maybe. Not so much the wider audience of social media other than a passing curiosity as to what makes Mormons tick.

I suspect that this might be more about keeping the members thoughts on the TSCC as they spend lots of time online. Online missionary efforts are definitely a waste of time, that is why I see this as another retention effort.
The TSCC just has to retain 2 children out of every family to keep its size and influence. They get stronger every year just from retention.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2018 11:29PM by chipace.

It's very comforting to know that there is a large, literate, not-at-all bashful, bunch of exmos all ready to respond to any mormon social media statements that require the salve of truth.

I unfollowed an acquaintance on FB during the Mormon church Christmas service campaign -- "Light the World." Evidently she interpreted this campaign to mean posting something churchy every day, and if posting one churchy meme is good then posting three or more is better, right? I couldn't take it anymore. It was completely clogging up my feed.

I would have unfollowed her for this alone, but it did cause me to evaluate her posts overall. Only roughly 5% were updates on her personal life. 5% of the posts were funeral notices for people to whom she did not appear to have any clear relation. How many times can you say "I'm sorry" when you have no idea why you are sorry? And 90% of her posts were church memes and other church junk.

When I thought about it, unfollowing her wasn't a hard call.

The sad thing is that she had a job that put her in contact with a lot of interesting, and in some cases famous/well-known people. She worked in an exciting atmosphere. But you never heard about that!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2018 06:01AM by summer.

This is nothing new. Mormons have been bragging about the cult on Fakebook for years.

I know some senior missionaries who were ordered to create a Facebook page, as part of their missions.

Every mission president I know personally, had two Facebook pages. One was for the mission itself, and the other was their personal page. The personal page was fancy family photos, their own testimonies, and church propaganda. Actually, they included very little real personal information, or info about their family members.

I have known a lot of mission presidents, and a lot of them are relatives. All their personal Facebook pages were very similar! It seems like they have a format to follow. I'm sure some of the propaganda was received directly from TSCC, for them to post on Facebook, as these articles were duplicated on many of the pages. It was like, if you've seen one person's page, you've seen them all. I did get bored with reading all of them. I wanted to know how THEY were doing, and that was the one question that was never answered by their pages.

Mormon Facebook pages are frustrating and disappointing. Most of the stuff is photoshopped. Problems or mistakes are never mentioned. You only get that shiny Mormon facade of "happy perfection." So fake.

They can't have it both ways. First they tell them to stay away from the evil internet where people openly discuss their church. They routinely told them to stay away from anything not "faith promoting."

Now they tell them to surf around and get involved?

That tells me that they are more worried about the damage the internet is doing than whether or not their members get exposed to damaging truth.

Yes they try to look happy on social media.

https://www.mormon.org/vanessa

I have coworkers who have talked about their children using Facebook for their mission. It’s utterly bizarre to me, I’m fairly young and the thought of being able to use Facebook while ‘serving’ a mission would have been absolutely unacceptable when I was that age. I actually feel like it’s just another way for TSCC to exercise control over one more aspect of the lives of its members. It saw a huge gap in its influence opening up with the age of social media and quickly swooped in to prevent its members from tasting any sort of freedom.

The more Mormons expose their religion to the world the more LDSism will shrink. How clueless can a cult get?

I think this is a great idea from the corporation. There is nothing more irritating, when online, than to get religious propaganda thrown at you. This should be effective in further repelling folks from Mormonism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2018 11:15AM by Eric K.

I've been off Facebook for a few years now, but I've noticed on Instagram every Mormon I know puts lds.org under their name.

Wasn't there a recent "fast" from the internet?

Heartless Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wasn't there a recent "fast" from the internet?


Yes, but this is now the SLOW
That follows the fast