LDS App of Facebook: Opportunity for Inter-faith Dialog

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Facebook is now ready to launch its long-awaited Verified Applications platform, to protect users from some of the spammy applications that exist. In addition, it will now share feeds of your friends’ third-party apps, so you can see which ones they have chosen to use.

Speaking of apps, we’d like to remind those of you who include on Facebook some of your LDS interests and background, that there is an LDS Application of Facebook. It includes space for noting your personal scripture faves, and incorporates a few scripture mastery games. You have the option as to whether or not to include the information on your personal profile.

Additionally, take a look at the Ensign Facebook page–a fairly new development. For friends of other faiths visiting, The Ensign is a monthly magazine that shares messages from Mormon leaders and everyday members, includes a monthly message for Mormon Women to share with their neighbors, and Church news from around the world. If you are interested in purchasing a copy for your family, you can learn more about it and order it here.

Facebook is a great way to join the inter-faith conversation online. You can share links, videos, family photos on Facebook in a not-in-your-face kind of way, so that those visiting your pages can see the influence your faith has on your everyday life, inviting questions and participation in conversation with our friends of diverse backgrounds and faiths.

Facebook is a virtual phenomenon. From the day that Mark Zuckerberg turned his pass-around notebook of faces and contact information to keep track of classmates to its conversion to the Internet with his Harvard buddies, Dustin and Chris, in 2004, Facebook didn’t sleep. Its growth in the fall of 2007 was staggering:

Over 1 million new users signed up every week, 200,000 daily, totaling over 50 million active users. Facebook received 40 billion page views a month. Long gone were the days of Facebook as a social network for college students. 11% of users are over the age of 35, and the fastest growing demographic is users over 30. Facebook has also seen huge growth internationally; 15% of the user base is in Canada. Facebook users’ passion to the site is unparalleled: more than half use the product every single day and users spend an average of 19 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook is 6th most trafficked site in the US and top photo sharing site with 4.1 billion photos uploaded. (”Facebook”)

If you are interested in our initiative in reaching out to Russia online, opening up a dialog about our faith, feel free to visit LDS Russia on Facebook, or check out our Russian forum at mormonforum dot ru.

If you are interested in checking out more about Mormon women, we also have a Facebook group, so please feel free to visit.  The group is associated with the website by a similar name, MormonWoman dot org. The site is a great venue for viewing authentic glimpses into the lives of faithful and proactive LDS women, present and past, and includes a repository of articles, reflections on women’s issues, and multi-media content with user interface and volunteer contributions welcome.

Questions? Comments? Email us at email@moregoodfoundation dot org.  Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Facebook, inter-faith dialog, LDS app, LDS online, Mormon beliefs, Online missionary work