Overcoming Discouragement

I love my husband so much. He knows how to help cheer me up. This past week I have been feeling mega-overwhelmed. I have so many assignments/projects/papers to write/do before the end of the semester that I have no idea how it's all going to get done (it'll get done somehow...). Last night he gave a FHE lesson about overcoming discouragement. He used this article from the Ensign as the basis for his lesson. It was so great. Afterward, we played Just Dance to help relieve the stress (it's both physical activity and a change of pace--we hardly ever use our Wii for playing games during the semester). Surprisingly, it worked! I felt a lot less stressed after playing on the Wii with my husband. I'm still not feeling too stressed today (setting priorities also helps, although this wasn't one of them for today...).

Another thing I decided to do is get rid of all social media and games from my phone. I waste so much time scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Some time (not as much as previous semesters) is wasted through playing games (mainly Sims Freeplay). I still allow myself to go on Facebook a few (no more than three) times a day (mainly because one of my other classes uses Facebook, otherwise I would be refraining from it too). I plan to put Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram back on my phone once the semester is completely over. I don't know about Twitter, since I mainly use it to look at news and not for the original purpose of me getting Twitter--to share uplifting/inspirational/gospel related quotes/scriptures.

I really feel like these things are helping me to be less stressed during this mega-stressful time of the semester.

Dear Facebook

April 7, 2015

Mark Zuckerberg

CEO

Facebook

1 Hacker Way

Menlo Park, California 94025

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:

I have been a Facebook user for seven years. Overall, I have been impressed how Facebook has changed and the way it is run. However, there is one change that I would like to suggest. The change I would like to address is that of reporting nudity, specifically clarity of how you define what is appropriate and inappropriate.

Over the past seven years I have only had to report nudity six times. Thankfully, this is not something that comes across my News Feed very often. When it has it mostly was from a friend of a friend tagging them in it or posting it to their wall. However, each of the times I reported the pictures I felt were inappropriate nudity, none of them were removed.

After going over your Community Standards page, I believe that some of the posts I reported are against your standards, despite your team’s decision. To help reduce confusion, it would be helpful to be more specific in your definitions. The terms that need additional clarification include: other art, digitally created content, and educational purposes. Knowing exactly what is meant by those terms will help alleviate confusion and will make it easier for other users to know what is actually inappropriate.

Also, I do not understand why a picture that shows everything except the nipple is acceptable, but a picture showing the nipple is not. I feel like if it is going to show everything except the nipple it should still be removed because it leaves nothing to the imagination and there is nothing special about that one small part of the breast.

Along those same lines, I do not understand why a photo that is fully focused on the buttocks is not okay, while a full-back nude shot is okay (e.g. photo showing someone from behind head to toe). Both photos are showing a person’s full bare buttocks.

I thank you for the terms you do have clarified and the work that your team does to keep Facebook a safe place. I hope you take my suggestion (and suggestions from others like mine) into serious consideration. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Helen Ford

Easter/General Conference Weekend

I had a really great Easter/General Conference Weekend. It's always one of my favorite times of the year. This weekend my mom came out to visit, so my husband and I took her to all the neat places (the temple, IKEA, Provo City Center temple site, campus, etc.). I loved all the talks, especially the ones that talked about marriage and family. It's been great having her around for a few days. I didn't get much homework done, though. Oh well. Hopefully it'll work out in the end (I'm mostly nervous for a test I have to take tomorrow that closes tomorrow and I haven't had a chance to study for it yet...) :/ Anyway, I love conference. I love Easter. I love my family.

Ratings System

I am probably one of the somewhat few that actually use the rating systems as a guideline to what I deem as appropriate. Not only that, I actually pay attention to the content label. For example, if something is TV-14 or higher I won't watch it, especially if it contains sexual situations, language, and violence. Same goes for movies PG-13 on up. I like things that are family friendly. I feel that most family friendly movies/shows are not terribly inappropriate most times.

Even though I am thankful we have a ratings system, I think it could use a bit of help, especially consistency-wise. It's crazy how a movie can be rated PG-13 for only 3 f-words but it's R if it uses more than that. It makes me curious where the MPAA and TV shows draw the line for sexual situations? There have been a few PG-13 movies that made me scratch my head wondering how this is something that is okay for a 13 year-old to watch when me as a 22 year-old am not comfortable watching it. I think it would be great if someday the MPAA will draw in experts to help rate these movies more accurately.