LDS General Conference

I always love conference weekend because it is a time when I have an excuse to get away from my responsibilities so that I can listen to the leaders of our church. I also love the feeling that members around the world are all watching the same thing and are sustaining the leaders of the church at the same time. I always get a bittersweet feeling at the end of conference because on the one hand, I’m glad that I enjoyed a spiritually uplifting weekend, but on the other hand I know that it is over for the next six months. I’ve decided that I am going to be better about listening and reading talks between this conference and next conference so that I can feel like I am getting the most out of the talks. Here is a picture of the conference center during conference, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the LDS General Conference. The talks are given by church leaders and broadcasted over TV.

Media Letter

So this week in my media class we had to write a letter to someone with some influence in the media. I decided to write to Nicholas Sparks. Here is what I said:

Dear Nicholas Sparks,

            I am studying Human Development at Brigham Young University and would like to say thank you for keeping your books so clean. You probably get a lot of pressure to do otherwise, but I personally am glad that I can pick up one of your books without worrying about the kind of romantic detail that might be inside. The movie industry is definitely not concerned about this kind of thing when they uses your stories, but I think it really says something that you are able to make popular clean stories before the movie industry even gets a hold of them. I feel like you are a pretty influential figure in a lot of teen girls’ lives, and your books teach girls that they do not need to have sex to have a successful romantic relationship with someone. I think that your books also teach girls that they do not need to settle for someone who is only interested in them for sex because your books show them that there are guys out there that could be more interested in their personality than their body.

            The only thing that I noticed in your last book was that there was quite a bit of violence. I can’t blame you because violence sells books and is very realistic in the story you depicted, but it still has an influence on the way teen readers perceive reality after reading your books. Safe Haven obviously teaches teen girls not to tolerate abusive situations and teaches guys to avoid becoming abusive, but readers are exposed to a lot of violence in the process. This may lead teen girls to think that there is a good chance that they will become involved in an abusive relationship and to fear relationships and men as a result. Obviously the effects of this would not be life changing, but could add to other life experiences they’ve had to create a stronger cumulative affect. This is just a small thing that it might be nice to take into consideration. I am a HUGE fan though and I appreciate all you’ve done to help girls better understand romantic relationships.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                Jessica Morrell