Well Informed #3-
Religion 2.0

For my final WI, I decided to focus on religion because this has been a very confusing and common discussion in my life recently. To start off this post I will give background information on me and then I will do this research and come back with further information and hopeful new ideas and stand points. 
I was born and raised in South Jordan Utah. Where the main religion is the Latter Day Saints. I was raised by a mother who ranked religion as the number one importance in her life, she was raised and still from what I am aware is a devout LDS member. My dad was raised by a catholic mother and  slightly active LDS father. His mom pretended to like the LDS religion for my grandpa and my dad never really went to church or did any of that. My parents were married in an LDS Temple and were sealed. Warning some of this may be a bit more personal than intended, but I think it is necessary to get my ideas and lay it all out. Now back to my story, jump ahead 25 years after they have had three children who were all baptized into the church at the age of 8 and they got a Temple divorce. There is a bit of a mess to this story because of strange and cooked things within the church, but long story short my mom knew someone and knew how to get this divorce done and my dad did not want the temple divorce, but she wanted to be able to marry someone else and a lot more adult drama. Which I did not find out most of until I was in high school. My parents got divorced when I was in middle school and my main caretake was my dad. I basically stopped constantly going to church once I was 12 because I hated going and my dad wanted me to make my own decisions. I love that about him, he didn't try to shove anything down my throat he wanted to guide me. 
I am an eighteen year old and I do not goto any church, I have never been a religious person, but I am very spiritual. I believe in God and I pray and I know what I think is real about there being an after life and I do not think God wanted us to fear him, yet religion is for those that are fearful in my honest opinion. Nothing wrong with wanting that validation and structure and community and good for you if it works, but for me its not whats best. I think social media is a key factor in the drop in those being a part of religions. We now have this many platforms where we are able to find a sense of community and talk with others and relate and learn from peoples mistakes. Now it may not be face to face or always about religion, but it is just a different type.I think religion is thought to be this touchy subject because there are so many realigns, but I think we should just be open and honest. This would make things be less secretive and seem less "cultish" if I am allowed to say that. I think when you are trying to hide things its not good, but if you're up front even if its something I don't want to hear about I commend you. 
I can understand why people want to go to church every Sunday or Wednesday or Saturday, whenever they meet, why they like going back and seeing those people and connecting and having this morals and structure handed to them. I see the likeness of it, but I wonder if they ever feel pressured or if this is just a part of the Utah LDS religion guilt that was given to me. Every religion is different, every person is different, but we all go through similar things. Maybe we just really do crave more human interaction and this is a good way to get it.
I do not think everyone on Instagram posting pictures of religious symbols or people tweeting scriptures are trying to use it as a form of religion, but it is. Even when someone is just discussing their most recent heart break or troubled-ness I think this is a form of religion. I know typically you wouldn't go to church for this, but its almost like media ethics are a play into our media religion. Not that you can't be on the media and still believe in a religion.
I looked up the exact definition of religion and this is what I got. Its interesting to read this because Atheist is a type of religion, yet they do not believe in god or controlling powers. Now there is a lot of garbage going on in social media and I am not saying that social media is this holy and glorious place to be meeting and discussing, but I think this could potentially be taking people aware from church. Along with movies and music and shows. You never hear about Kanye West going to church and it isn't popularized to do so. Its good to roll a joint and get a hot girl to "go back to your crib." The media is much more open and there room for almost everything and there are even apps like we discussed in class where you can do things you would only do in a church online in an app now. The world is changing and religion isn't excluded from that.