Local needs - Choose Your Apps Wisely

[CHecker]

7 minutes ago, Qapla said:

 

When the overwhelming majority of people use a particular service/app, like WhatsApp, saying "everyone" has it should not be taken literal but, as intended, an expression that conveys the saturation use.

Great description John, very true. We're human, tend to make generalizations and that's ok. It's generally understood that we all generalize, generally speaking😉

[Dages]

18 minutes ago, Qapla said:

When the overwhelming majority of people use a particular service/app, like WhatsApp, saying "everyone" has it should not be taken literal but, as intended, an expression that conveys the saturation use.

Yep, in France, Whatsapp is the most commonly used too.

in Japan, it's Line.

 

So when I was in Japan, everything was communicated through Line for the groups/congregation.

Now it's the same but with Whatsapp, as I'm in France (I still have a Line account to discuss with my Japanese friends  ) 

[Brandon]

"everyone" should not be taken literal[ly]

Unless the person says "literally everyone" which he did

[Dages]

1 minute ago, Brandon said:

Unless the person says "literally everyone" which he did

 

What is an hyperbole?  

[Brandon]

What is an hyperbole?  

is it the thing we're cautioned against using online where intonation and verbosity is lacking, leaving meanings regularly distorted?

[Qapla]

hy·per·bo·le
noun
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

 

In these common, everyday examples of hyperbole, you'll see the sentiment isn't realistic, but it helps to stress the point. I've told you to clean your room a million times! It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing hats and jackets. She's so dumb, she thinks Taco Bell is a Mexican phone company.

 

 

 

Jesus used hyperbole

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

Or you could email them which costs nothing but to each his own

Brandon, I'm not sure where we are disagreeing. We all agree that nobody should be forced to use Whatsapp or any other app.

 

On the other hand, we have to be practical. Since most friends here have Whatsapp, we use Whatsapp to communicate. I get it you don't like Whatsapp, that's fine. Obviously it has advantages and disadvantages. But it's the means we use. If there is something important that everyone needs to know, and yet someone cannot or doesn't want to use Whatsapp, we can always contact them by email or by phone or go to their home and tell them. We would do that if necessary. But so far there has been no need.

[Brandon]

15 minutes ago, carlos said:

Brandon, I'm not sure where we are disagreeing. 

We were disagreeing simply on a couple facts, namely, when you wrote:

15 minutes ago, carlos said:

 literally everyone here has Whatsapp installed... in 50 million people maybe there are two or three who don't

It was a simple, and obviously needed, clarification since there are in fact several million people in Spain without WhatsApp according to the source I listed.  I don't know why there are so many other people jumping in as though this was a debate with two sides. But then, the behaviour of neurotypicals always has puzzled me. But I'm certainly not upset. 😊

Edited August 22, 2020 by Brandon

[carlos]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

It was a simple, and obviously needed, clarification since there are in fact several million people in Spain without WhatsApp according to the source I listed.

Yes, that's probably true. I was using exaggeration to highlight the point. 

 

I didn't mean to give accurate numbers, just to make the point that since most people in Spain use Whatsapp, that's currently the most practical way to communicate with a number of friends.

[BLEmom]

21 hours ago, nicolette said:

I never heard of Discord too😆

Discord is popular among gamers. My son and his friends use this app for chatting most of the time. Also, this younger generation of young men has disdain for older apps like Facebook and Snapchat, thinking they are either dumb or for old people.  Lol. 

[Cool Cat]

On 8/21/2020 at 6:00 PM, TrueTomHarley said:

I suspect the unbolded line about how we respond is a reflection of our own spirituality is something he threw in himself for emphasis. It may even be that he knows little about the internet himself outside of jw.org, and thus is inclined to rule it all out.

 

The bolded part I think he phrased it not exactly the way counsel is typically given. The brothers do not tell us what we should or should not do, even “for our own safety.” (unless we are speaking of a Bible law). Instead, they do what @Dismal_Blisssaid: advise caution, explain the reason for caution via scriptural principles, and trust that persons consciences will take it from there. They do not attempt to be master of other persons’ faith.

 

 

The brother who gave the talk was our youngest elder, very tech savvy an audio visual overseer at regional conventions and likes to have fun. We go camping with his family often and are good friends. 

 

It didn't come across dogmatic it sounded like he was reading from the outline. 

 

[Hinata]

3 hours ago, BLEmom said:

Discord is popular among gamers. My son and his friends use this app for chatting most of the time. Also, this younger generation of young men has disdain for older apps like Facebook and Snapchat, thinking they are either dumb or for old people.  Lol. 

 

Then I am not sure how old I am if I use both Facebook and Discord at the same time.......

 

[Brandon]

 
Then I am not sure how old I am if I use both Facebook and Discord at the same time.......
 

That’s some real multitasking so I’m gonna guess you’re a millennial

[TrueTomHarley]

8 hours ago, MentalProject said:

The brother who gave the talk was our youngest elder, very tech savvy an audio visual overseer at regional conventions and likes to have fun. We go camping with his family often and are good friends. 

 

It didn't come across dogmatic it sounded like he was reading from the outline. 

 

I could not have been more wrong if I tried.

[retroHelen]

Thankfully the brother giving our Local Needs made it clear that it is the Wise use of Apps not the banning of apps he was discussing!  

 

He did comment on the statement"we should not be setting up social media groups with people we do not know personally" and also applied this to being careful not to accept every "friend request" that we are sent before we have checked out the requesting person's profile. On facebook I have been sent 'friend' requests of people/relatives who I have already 'friended,' so there are obviously a lot of fakers setting up false profiles and stealing names and photographs to link to a person for strange reasons that will not be good if they aren't who they claim to be. 

 

The brother also mentioned having a periodic 'clean up' of our social media profile's 'friend list' when it may be the case that some of our 'old friends', who have been a long time with us on there, may no longer be in our faith by their own choice. therefore, no longer suitable friends for us to keep associating with.

 

Though he did not mention dating sites specifically, I remember a few years ago my husband (elder) had to deal with someone who had got together with someone abroad from a JW dating site. She was a weak person and he was desperate to get to UK. It did not last long nor end well - divorce.

 

I was asked to visit the website, just to get an opinion of it for the elders because no elders then were so internet savvy as elders are now and a few people in the Circuit were accessing this dating site and recommended it to the weak sister. My husband was with me as I showed him how it worked. It gave the written impression of being a JW adjudicated site, but we felt that there were perhaps cribbed pictures of couples from our publications on ministry together - which rang alarms of copyright infringements. Then there was the long application form and among the long list of questions, it wanted to know what the applicant's 'star sign' was - a dead give away that it was just a Worldly generic dating app nothing to do with Witnesses. The whole idea of dating a person this way was so not right anyway!

 

We need to learn safety when using any apps. It's too easy to get pulled into sites that turn out to have political or other agendas you are expected to support. It's too  easy to 'friend' people or 'like' groups that then start sending you questionable links/jokes/opinions/language that could influence you to want to fit in with them and compromise/divert your own conscience. I might use a social media app to keep contact with relatives, business and history sites, but if they start giving me grief because of who I am/what I believe, then I will be out of there if I cannot unfriend/unlike them!!

[McKay]

4 hours ago, retroHelen said:

The whole idea of dating a person this way was so not right anyway!

There goes my idea for a Witness dating site called “jHarmony.” 😉 

[Qapla]

4 hours ago, retroHelen said:

Thankfully the brother giving our Local Needs made it clear that it is the Wise use of Apps not the banning of apps he was discussing!  

 

Thank You Helen for stating this so simply and straightforward.

 

All to often when we get direction on something there are those who jump to the conclusion that the FDS is saying we can't do or use something. In this case, we were being given direction on "correct use" not "stop using it"

 

If we were to get direction on the "wise use of our car" would we take that to mean we had to stop driving? 

 

 

[Tortuga]

41 minutes ago, Qapla said:

If we were to get direction on the "wise use of our car" would we take that to mean we had to stop driving? 

Good illustration. If we applied the same reasoning to the warnings we receive about dress and grooming, entertainment and recreation, there would be a lot of naked people sitting at home watching the walls...

[McKay]

To be fair to the rule-oriented, it WOULD be easier if life came with a rule book that covers every situation imaginable. You couldn’t go wrong. 

 

But hearing counsel and applying it let’s Jehovah see what is really in our hearts. If we apply direction, we’re telling him something good; if we balk, we’re telling him something different. Rule-making is so tempting, but when we make people live by OUR rules we’re taking away from them a golden opportunity to show Jehovah what they’re really made of. It wouldn’t be loving to anyone if we did that. 

[Ludwika]

And we all should endeavour to hold to the same standards of civility and love that we would if meeting in person. The world outside often uses the relative anonymity of the Internet to be abusive. We love to be here, i know I do. It's a safe place for all of us, we can all do our part to keep it an upbuilding, encouraging and welcoming place to interact with our brothers and sisters, who we'd not have the opportunity to know otherwise. 

[Qapla]

I remember back when computers first started to be widely used at home (I'm sure some of you were not born yet to fully understand what I mean) and we received "direction" about using computers. Back then, some of that "direction" did not come in written form in our literature (or even in letters to the Congregation) but it the form of "appointed Brothers" setting rules or standards.

 

At that time, many were dead set against using computers. They felt we should only use paper and pencil/pen to do all we needed to do. Some even claimed that, even with your computer turned off and all the floppy disks (yes, this was before we kept everything on the hard drive and long before "the cloud") out of the computer that someone could "phone your house and get all your private data". Many of those same brothers are the ones who now embrace the level of computer technology we currently use.

 

Back then, the Branch never said we "could NOT" use computers, they only recommended caution - the same as today. While there were apps named in the outline for the talk on "wise use" ... they did not say we could not use them - just that we should use them "wisely".

 

Like some of those back when computer use was new - we do not want to go "beyond what is written" and try to force others to adhere to a standard we decide is the correct understanding of "wise use" - making rules the FDS did not make in that talk.

 

 

[friendlyone]

I haven't used Facebook in some years until recently. I suddenly decided to do some updating of my profile in there, and add a bit of content.

 

Oh, and accept a 'friend' request from someone I know in my congregation. The friend request was made 2 years ago.  😄

 

The requests that were outstanding from people I didn't know I deleted. They can always ask again if they want to be my friends.

 

Anyway, it wasn't until I noticed on someone's profile here they had put their own F/B page under the website URL bit, so I decided I'd include my own F/B link in my own profile.

 

Oh, just to add I like WhatSapp which a lot in my congregation tend to use. It's very popular here. I know of just one or two who use Messenger. Like anything, just a case of being careful.

Edited September 3, 2020 by friendlyone

[Paradise-Lover]

17 hours ago, friendlyone said:

 

Oh, and accept a 'friend' request from someone I know in my congregation. The friend request was made 2 years ago.

Hoping he hasn't withdrawn the offer. 🌝👎💘😂

[friendlyone]

4 minutes ago, Paradise-Lover said:

Hoping he hasn't withdrawn the offer. 🌝👎💘😂

It's a 'she' who is still active on Facebook, and she runs her own business which she promotes on F/B. So, no worries about her withdrawing her offer. 😀👍

[Amygdala]

On 8/28/2020 at 6:46 PM, Qapla said:

At that time, many were dead set against using computers. They felt we should only use paper and pencil/pen to do all we needed to do. Some even claimed that, even with your computer turned off and all the floppy disks (yes, this was before we kept everything on the hard drive and long before "the cloud") out of the computer that someone could "phone your house and get all your private data". Many of those same brothers are the ones who now embrace the level of computer technology we currently use.

 

Back then, the Branch never said we "could NOT" use computers, they only recommended caution - the same as today. While there were apps named in the outline for the talk on "wise use" ... they did not say we could not use them - just that we should use them "wisely".

 

Like some of those back when computer use was new - we do not want to go "beyond what is written" and try to force others to adhere to a standard we decide is the correct understanding of "wise use" - making rules the FDS did not make in that talk.

 

I remember during one "district convention" when the brother on stage said that VCR's were sooo not for christians. I can't remember his exact wording, but being new in the Truth it was something that stood out to me. His well-intentioned opinion at least didn't affect me, and I didn't feel guilty for using my parents VCR. I'm sure he sees things differently now.