Just for the hang of it Saturday morning, I jumped into my Twitter account to see what was going on in the microblogging world. I thought there might be some chatter about General Conference, but didn't expect that I'd get swept up in the collaborative hashtag project affectionately known to Mormon Tweeters as #ldsconf. Before I knew it, though, I was experiencing Conference in a way I've never experienced before: as a collaborative knowledge building exercise in which minds and hearts from around Twit-dom were engaged. Tweets ranged from direct quotations (or approximations thereof) of speakers' words to retweets of the same to personal insights gained while listening to Church leaders speak. I found that I could get the most out of each message (both the talks and the tweets) by spinning main ideas and my own insights into my own language.
In the process, I was impressed with three resolves, things that came early and were rehashed through my continuing experience with watching Conference and with following the #ldsconf stream. In the interest of committing myself to be better, I'm reporting them here now:
Resolve 1: I mustn't simply know more; I must do more.
Resolve 2: Walk and talk with greater love; act and speak with greater charity. Which dovetails nicely with what was originally Resolve 4, but is now Resolve 2.1: Cultivate a greater willingness to share: myself, my possessions, my talents, my knowledge, my Faith.
Resolve 3: Cultivate greater spiritual discernment by recommitting to the small and simple things.
Nothing grand here, but these were the things I needed to hear. And live-tweeting during Conference was one thing that helped me discover and bear (t)witness of them and, thus, erect something of a support system to help me live, serve, and speak with greater resolve.
So I'll give a few cheers for my Twitterpation and tentatively submit that, so far, its benefits outweigh its drawbacks (such as the whole time-sucking vortex that is participating in a Twitter stream).
Now, off to follow my little tweety musings...
(For more on tweeting #ldsconf live, Jeff Swift has some interesting thoughts here.)
Glad you enjoyed the #ldsconf experience. I really like your idea of bearing (t)witness. Very well-said.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what sorts of things we can do during the "off season" of General Conference--what other ways to bear (t)witness can we find? I think your idea of a support system for personal improvement is quite compelling. I'd be interested to hear how that goes.
Great post! Thanks for sharing the bearing twitness thought -- very clever. I don't know why I didn't think of that myself? LOL
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So cool. It never would have occurred to me that #ldsconf would even exist, but now I can't wait for April.
ReplyDeleteYour resolves are excellent.
(T)witness = witty (but not twitty).
Thanks, Luisa. I'm likely often more twitty than witty.
ReplyDeleteJeff:
ReplyDeleteI wonder what sorts of things we can do during the "off season" of General Conference--what other ways to bear (t)witness can we find?
(I'm thinking very specifically in terms of Twitter here:) I don't think it needs to be anything excessive or overbearing, such that we become twitness bearing zealots. For me, as on this blog, that means not being afraid to discuss spiritual/religious matters when they come up or when I feel compelled to share some experience I've had with God. In the past, I've tried to implement a weekly svithe (a neologism combining seven and tithe) as Theric (also know as Thmazing) and others have done---and that I really should pick up again---as a means to devote one post in a week to spiritual/religious matters. Perhaps a #twitness hashtag (though I see it's already been co-opted for other purposes; let's take it for ourselves!) or some such label might encourage Mormon tweeters to do the same, to share their resolve to live and share the Gospel in real time, to be a support system for other Twitter-day Saints.
Just a thought.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad you wrote this post. I wanted to, but waited too long and forgot what I intended to say. So it goes. And Tyler picks up my slack.
Good thing you got me to pass on that sabbatical then.
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