Thanks for this piece Kyle, I also have noticed the increase in LDS influencers online. It's really exciting to hear so many defend the faith, but I cringe when that turns into bombastic zeal that seems to be overly confrontational or anything that just turns to be downright disrespectful.
This is really good to keep in mind. I liked these lines: "I’ve noticed, too, that some of the Church’s defenders don’t always sound like the Brethren. At least, they don’t to me (for what it’s worth, I’m not LDS). When the Brethren plead for peacemaking, some pay that plead with lip service, but then end up defending their Zion in a spirit Zion itself might not recognize."
By the way, I would love your thoughts on my new newsletter: you and Jeff from Hello Saints have inspired me to share some thoughts from an LDS perspective on interfaith relationships. I have been reading through some of your prior material and thought to myself, "This is what I want. An honest intellectual respectful take on what it seems like to those not of my faith."
Thanks, Andreas, for reading and for your feedback! I really appreciate it.
I really think this is a cultural phenomenon, not restricted to LDS content creators, so I'm glad to see that word was received as intended. I'm also not foolish enough to think that I'm not susceptible to the same thing...
I'm musing on the algorithm and clamor for attention as something new and different. Personally, I'm almost entirely engaged with the print and publication world--books and journals. One could argue that we in the print world also think about the audience and care about sales. But it feels different. Maybe it's the slower feedback loop. Maybe it's older patterns and practices. Maybe it's the nature of the people who choose one over the other. But my experience in the Mormon publishing world is that most people most of the time are thinking in terms of personal interest or what they think needs to exist or what their selected audience wants or needs, and not first about sales. That feels very different than serving an algorithm.
I think you’re on to something about print media having the same issues, just slower. And at least with print, you have some semblance of accountability, to your editor, your publisher.
This piece sort of hints at some older history, the LDS landscape before the rise of correlation in the very early 1970s, when the Church essentially clamped down on freewheeling speculative sorts of things and unified all church teaching under the Priesthood instead of allowing the auxiliaries to have free reign.
Paradoxically, of course, this "decentralized" church is and has been the case for a long time too, going back to scriptural days. The time of the Judges, the time of the prophets all being kind of outside of the priest structure in Jerusalem (and some prophets like Elijah openly in the wilderness, challenging the powers that be), and the early Acts.
God does not want us to be robots, after all, but actively engaged. And each of us have our own talents. But He does not want us to preach false doctrines or turn into the Pharisees or Sadducees, preaching ourselves and not the Gospel.
I observed the impact of Gig Mo (more broadly defined than your presentation) in the pews of Utah after the introduction of the "Come, Follow Me" curriculum in 2019. I recall that as a disorienting time. With the shift to "home-centered/church-supported" learning and devotional life, the hierarchy inadvertently created a new market for supplemental materials from decentralized producers. There was a dramatic rise in podcasts and freelance materials. Some of it, even conservative, deviated from messaging norms in Salt Lake. The viral, bombastic online arguments among online personalities are among these deviations.
I have yet to see an analysis of how the effects of the LDS hierarchy's correlation efforts evolved as their imposition was softened in the last 10 years, popping information bubbles. How might this compare to evangelical, confessional Protestant, or Catholic messaging patterns? The messaging programs of all these other groups currently seem less centralized compared to LDS correlation, even though, in the case of Catholics like me, we maintain formal creeds, visible hierarchical communion, and have a global Catechism. I might posit that LDS fall into the extremes of information flow (tight/loose, depending on where you are), while Catholic creators follow a rule of materially localized but still formally unified subsidiarity, loose cannons duly noted. To be clear, this does not entail members who are more loose in their exploration of ideas and use of influencer content failing to consider the movements among General Authorities. Evangelicals likewise have an organic quality of subsidiarity that I rarely observed among LDS, though I'd be open to correction. In all cases within the online space, contrary to the printing industry, we are facing dynamics of rapid reactions, audience's immediate access to major influencers, and compressed presentation of content. The immediacy preeminently alters the dynamics and the incentive structures for the audience engagement feeding the algorithm.
Thanks for this piece Kyle, I also have noticed the increase in LDS influencers online. It's really exciting to hear so many defend the faith, but I cringe when that turns into bombastic zeal that seems to be overly confrontational or anything that just turns to be downright disrespectful.
This is really good to keep in mind. I liked these lines: "I’ve noticed, too, that some of the Church’s defenders don’t always sound like the Brethren. At least, they don’t to me (for what it’s worth, I’m not LDS). When the Brethren plead for peacemaking, some pay that plead with lip service, but then end up defending their Zion in a spirit Zion itself might not recognize."
By the way, I would love your thoughts on my new newsletter: you and Jeff from Hello Saints have inspired me to share some thoughts from an LDS perspective on interfaith relationships. I have been reading through some of your prior material and thought to myself, "This is what I want. An honest intellectual respectful take on what it seems like to those not of my faith."
Here is my first article: https://open.substack.com/pub/onefoldoneshepherd/p/what-i-would-say-in-front-of-an-interfaith?r=735ac&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Thanks, Andreas, for reading and for your feedback! I really appreciate it.
I really think this is a cultural phenomenon, not restricted to LDS content creators, so I'm glad to see that word was received as intended. I'm also not foolish enough to think that I'm not susceptible to the same thing...
Sure, I'll take a look!
I'm musing on the algorithm and clamor for attention as something new and different. Personally, I'm almost entirely engaged with the print and publication world--books and journals. One could argue that we in the print world also think about the audience and care about sales. But it feels different. Maybe it's the slower feedback loop. Maybe it's older patterns and practices. Maybe it's the nature of the people who choose one over the other. But my experience in the Mormon publishing world is that most people most of the time are thinking in terms of personal interest or what they think needs to exist or what their selected audience wants or needs, and not first about sales. That feels very different than serving an algorithm.
I think you’re on to something about print media having the same issues, just slower. And at least with print, you have some semblance of accountability, to your editor, your publisher.
Good thoughts, Christian!
Very interesting! Very perceptive!
This piece sort of hints at some older history, the LDS landscape before the rise of correlation in the very early 1970s, when the Church essentially clamped down on freewheeling speculative sorts of things and unified all church teaching under the Priesthood instead of allowing the auxiliaries to have free reign.
Paradoxically, of course, this "decentralized" church is and has been the case for a long time too, going back to scriptural days. The time of the Judges, the time of the prophets all being kind of outside of the priest structure in Jerusalem (and some prophets like Elijah openly in the wilderness, challenging the powers that be), and the early Acts.
God does not want us to be robots, after all, but actively engaged. And each of us have our own talents. But He does not want us to preach false doctrines or turn into the Pharisees or Sadducees, preaching ourselves and not the Gospel.
I observed the impact of Gig Mo (more broadly defined than your presentation) in the pews of Utah after the introduction of the "Come, Follow Me" curriculum in 2019. I recall that as a disorienting time. With the shift to "home-centered/church-supported" learning and devotional life, the hierarchy inadvertently created a new market for supplemental materials from decentralized producers. There was a dramatic rise in podcasts and freelance materials. Some of it, even conservative, deviated from messaging norms in Salt Lake. The viral, bombastic online arguments among online personalities are among these deviations.
I have yet to see an analysis of how the effects of the LDS hierarchy's correlation efforts evolved as their imposition was softened in the last 10 years, popping information bubbles. How might this compare to evangelical, confessional Protestant, or Catholic messaging patterns? The messaging programs of all these other groups currently seem less centralized compared to LDS correlation, even though, in the case of Catholics like me, we maintain formal creeds, visible hierarchical communion, and have a global Catechism. I might posit that LDS fall into the extremes of information flow (tight/loose, depending on where you are), while Catholic creators follow a rule of materially localized but still formally unified subsidiarity, loose cannons duly noted. To be clear, this does not entail members who are more loose in their exploration of ideas and use of influencer content failing to consider the movements among General Authorities. Evangelicals likewise have an organic quality of subsidiarity that I rarely observed among LDS, though I'd be open to correction. In all cases within the online space, contrary to the printing industry, we are facing dynamics of rapid reactions, audience's immediate access to major influencers, and compressed presentation of content. The immediacy preeminently alters the dynamics and the incentive structures for the audience engagement feeding the algorithm.