5 Ways the Internet Can Challenge your Testimony

[Third Hour]

Years ago, in the interest of finding topics to write about, I created a Google alert for news stories relating to the Church.  Ever since I get a daily dose of the Church’s media coverage some of it is positive (“precious little” is probably more accurate) and the rest is an unruly mob of articles complaining about Church policy, doctrine, leadership, supposed scandals, and culture. As I’ve perused the headlines or dived deeper into articles that I thought might give rise to discussion, I have come to appreciate why some people face challenges to their testimony as a result of extended time on the Internet.  I have sometimes found myself caught up in the maze of online information to the point that it shakes my testimony a bit. The Internet is a unique source of information and opinions:  Vast and unvetted.  It is a remarkably democratic forum, to which scholarly thinkers, everyday Joes, and basement-dwelling crackpots all have an equal opportunity to contribute.  As such, it can affect public opinion...

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[The Folk Prophet]

This article should be titled "5 Ways the Internet Can Challenge your Faith"

[David Stout]

Very true. Lewis Black once did a routine about how today's media will give equal time and weight to a Professor of 20th Century History and a Holocaust denier. Kind of crazy making. 

[prisonchaplain]

Without denying the pitfalls, I suspect these same concerns were raised when the printing press made a medium previously reserved for the well-trained available to the masses. Most have learned that in research we cannot use Wikipedia, Reader's Digest, etc. .edu and .gov usually have better-vetted material than .com.  thirdhour.org is a pro-church forum, but is not official. LDS.org is official. I could go on, but the lazy and naïve can, indeed, be messed up by the internet. The discerning can harness the unruly fire and sift out some great wisdom.