The Information Age

We live in a world with so much knowledge and so much information available almost instantly.  Just think of it.  In five minutes you can figure out how to make a cheesecake, calculate the square root of 5879232, check the top stories in the news, and communicate with your family and friends.  Never before has this been possible.  

My generation rarely goes to the library for research. I mean, why go to a building to research what you can find quicker and easier in your own bedroom.  The access that we have to knowledge is remarkable.  I have been thinking about how wonderful this easy access to information is, since I have gotten my iPad.  I can literally look up anything I want almost anywhere.  

The invention of the printing press changed the world, and made access to information easier for the masses.  A similar change is taking place right now.  With the invention of portable tablets and smartphones, information is available to everyone at a rate that never before anyone could have imagined.  

No longer does every family have a Bible, and every town have a library, but soon.  Every person will have the complete standard works, past and current church magazines, church handbooks, Preach My Gospel, the hymnbook, manuals, and any other gospel tool available to them at almost all times.  Not only that, but each person will be able to carry a personal library and access to a global database of information with them at all times.

We have the ability to learn and study as never before.  As the First Presidency mentioned during their Christmas Devotional, they are giving a free gift to everyone in the form of Bible Videos.  They didn't mention (or I didn't hear it) that they are also developing a mobile app that appears to let you read and study the scriptures in an interactive, dive into the pages sort of way.  The app isn't available for download, but some of the screenshots showed me how remarkable the world I live in is (both in the physical, as I have mentioned before in my love of the great creations, but also in the digital or cyberspace).  

I have so many tools and so many resources available to me literally at the touch of a fingertip.  I am so thankful to be living in a time when I can learn anything I want to know and see anything I want to see almost instantly.  

But sometimes, I wonder if I don't take proper advantage of the resources available to me.  Sometimes something becomes so easy, that I often find myself saying, I don't need to do that today, when I can do it whenever and wherever I want.  

I want to change that and use the remarkable resources that have been given to me and this generation to keep the promises I made to myself before I left the Spirit World (alright, so I don't remember what they are, but I am sure that I am the type of person who would have made promises to myself in the preexistence).  I want to better the kingdom of God and do what God expects me to do.  

I need to realize when something is easy, I should do it more often instead of less often!