Reflection on Social Media Case 9: Ponderize

Ethics can be a tricky thing when it comes to Social Media. Let’s take the example of the Durrant family and the Ponderize scandal.

It went down like this: Elder Devin Durrant, a general authority in the Mormon Church gave a talk and coined a new phrase, “Ponderize” which is the combination of the words “ponder” and “memorize.” Members of the church were moved by the talk in general conference, and conveniently, there was a website selling shirts with “Ponderize” for sale immediately during the break.

Who was selling the t-shirts? Well, it was Elder Durrant’s son, Ryan. Apparently, he set up the webpage about a week before General Conference.

It didn’t take long for people to start complaining that Ryan and Elder Durrant were trying to use Elder Durrant’s position in the church for their own financial gain. According to Wikipedia, I think this could kind of be considered spiritual opportunism, or using religion as a path toward personal gain. Since Elder Durrant got to choose his own topic, he and his son may have decided to plan both the talk and the webpage as a way to make money, out-shadowing his desire to follow the Lord in what to say.

Or, maybe it was a misunderstanding. It is hard to say. In this article, Elder Durrant apologizes, saying he never intended to offend people.

Regardless, it is impossible to know true intent. The site quickly said that all the profits would be go toward a missionary fund, and then the website was taken down completely.

All we know, moving forward, is that you should probably wait until #ponderize becomes an internet thing before you put up your website. And maybe it shouldn’t be someone in the family.