Baylee's Thoughts on Media

This past week in class, we discussed the effects of violent media. I'm pretty sure my husband feels like he's taking this class right alongside me because every day after class I become a jabber-box about what we learned and can't stop explaining to him the crazy things we discuss. I just find it all so interesting! Anyway, we watched Troy (an edited version) with some friends this past weekend because my husband just read the  Iliad  and was really interested in the story. I found myself more effected by the violence in the movie than I typically would be just because my senses were heightened to the negative effects of violent media after our class. I'm definitely more inclined now to be an ACTIVE consumer of media and be selective about what I watch/consume as I now know that it does indeed affect us--whether we think so or not!

Today in class, we discussed "fitspiration" and how it has become a large, recent trend in today's social media sites. Instead of focusing on becoming thin, this movement seeks to make women desire to be "strong--not skinny." Earlier this year, I began working out 4-5x per week and have continued and loved this habit, even today. I've come to enjoy what my body is capable of and love to see new lines of muscles where I had never seen them before. As I developed this habit, I began to follow more and more social media influencers who were strong, beautiful women whose feeds were inspiring to reach new physical heights and abilities. I wanted to be like them--I still want to be like them. But after talking about the effect that this kind of feed has on women (it has the same effect as women encouraging thinness), I took a step back and thought about how I have really viewed my body in the last year because of this influence. I wouldn't say I am obsessed wi...

My exposure to media has been very limited this week due to my continuing President Nelson's challenge to do a ten-day fast from social media. I have only been exposed to media relating to work, school, church, and some television. It has been a little harder than I expected--I typically look on social media sites when I am bored or need a moment to clear my head. It has become a habit. However, I've realized over the course of this week that social media is mostly where I have gotten my worldly influence; this has been enlightening because I'm realizing that if I want to be less worldly and less influenced by it, then I just need to limit myself to social media. I hope to continue this pattern and only introduce it in my life in limited amounts so that I can remain unspotted from the world and continue to enjoy the extra time I have each day because of my not looking at social media sites.

I love General Conference weekend and all it entails. My family has created many traditions around these two weekends each year, which makes the experience even more enjoyable and anticipated. I loved the challenge President Nelson gave in the women's session about taking a 10-day fast from media and other things that may cause you to have impure thoughts. The Church has talked a lot about using social media as a positive platform to express beliefs, truths, and positive, uplifting comments in order to change the current trend with negative and impure content saturating the web. So I thought it was interesting that President Nelson would challenge us to take a 10-day fast from social media as opposed to posting positive content on our feeds. This challenge, though I am in the middle of it now, has taught me so far that even though media can be used for so much good, we must not be so focused on it every day. It shouldn't take up every waking spare moment that we have (like it d...

This year, I've been trying a lot harder to work out frequently--that is, at least 3-5 times per week. To motivate myself, I began following individuals on social media who I admire and who post various exercises and workouts (Kayla Itsines is a good example of one who is well-known). It is so much harder to go to the gym with no plan of what you want to accomplish but when it's given to you, it is easy to just do the exercise on the post and know that it will be effective. These motivational Instagram influencers have really helped me maintain my motivation throughout this entire year; I have only missed working out at least 4x a week probably two weeks out of this year and I attribute much of it to the media I've been exposed to helping me develop better habits and positive thinking. Another use of media that has been very beneficial for me and my health is MUSIC! I don't like to hear myself breathe when I'm working out (especially when I run--I breathe loudly ha...