Patterns of Online Motivation: Why LDS Google Group Users Participate

motivate
Originally uploaded by Curtis Castillow.

By Curtis Castillow

I chose to analyze a thread from the group soc.religion.mormon, because as a LDS member and seminary instructor I understand the people, their culture, and the issues they discuss. I believe my background gives me a clearer understanding of the group’s motive.

The discussion I analyzed was centered on a very controversial issue, one that has been disputed by anti-abortionist, stem-cell researchers, and theologians. The issue was mainly concerned with the question: When does the spirit enter the body of an unborn child? The individual that posted the question stated the following:

In another thread hlillywh@juno.com posted in part <> That really surprises me especially with the LDS doctrine of the pre-existense of spirits. So then it's possible that the soul / spirit is infused at some point in time following the actually conception? Carrying that forward is it possible that a human person could exist even after birth without a soul/spirit?

By analyzing all 29 comments in light of LDS culture and doctrine some patterns began to emerge. There were five camps of people that contributed to the thread:
• The Speculators—24 total
• The Helpers—1 total
• The Doctrinally Correct Clarifiers—2 total
• The Evaluators—2 total

The “speculators,” by far, contributed the most to the group. They are bequeathed with this title because they love to speculate about the unknown. Many of them will preface their comment that they know there is no definitive answer by LDS authorities, yet they still state their opinion. For example, one person said, “It has not been revealed through the prophets and established as a doctrine. But it has been revealed to my wife and me: The spirit of the child is involved in the conception process.” The speculators seemed more motivated to conjecture on the unknown, than to answer with facts. They want to state their opinions, but they don’t support with truth.

The “helpers”, on the other hand, seem to possess the purest motives. The one helper—the only helper in the thread—seemed to have a genuine concern for the person asking the question. The helper’s comments were centered more on helping than convincing; the helper offered links to websites and specific talks that might contain insights and answers.

The “doctrinally correct clarifiers” were good at shooting holes in the speculator’s theories. Though they may have had their own opinions, they steered clear from stating them. They did, however, state doctrine from scriptures or LDS Church authorities that undermined the theories made by the speculators. It seemed by their comments that the clarifiers weren’t there to conjecture but rather to make appropriate course corrections when speculators veered from the truth. For example, one clarifier stated the following:
“FWIW (For whatever it’s worth), I believe Brigham Young speculated that it was when the mother can first feel the child kick in the womb. But it was just speculation. Anyway, this has been discussed a bit back a few years. You might want to check out this thread for some stuff regarding stemcell research.”
It seemed their motives were fueled by a desire to defend their faith and what is taught—not what is speculated.

The last group, the “evaluators,” made value statements on the merit or shortcomings of the speculator’s comments. One stated, “How important is this question on a scale of 1-1000 for our lives today?” Another said “All that has been said so far….is nothing but speculation.” They seemed motivated with a desire to keep an appropriate perspective on the subject discussed.


The URL for the thread is http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=10fmncqm27viu41%40news.supernews.com&prev=/groups%3Fnum%3D25%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3Dsoc.religion.mormon%26start%3D200