Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: How Technology Can Draw Us Away from HaShem

I do own a smart phone. I do use the internet. I mostly do not play computer games . I am not opposed to computer games in principle, I just don't much see the point. I work as a computer programmer, you see; I have more than enough frustration getting a computer to do what I want when it is not trying to oppose me. (Though there is one game on my phone that I allow to occupy more of my time than I should.)

That being said, I do believe that technology can be a vehicle to much ביטול תורה/murdering of time and a portal to quite serious Torah violations. Note I said "a vehicle to" and not that technology is in and of itself evil. Nothing in this world, in fact, is in and of itself evil; everything can be used for both good and evil. None the less, some things are so powerfully attractive to our יצר הרע and have so little to offer on the positive side that they must be avoided and almost any cost. I would put heroin and crystal meth in that category. Others have enough good going for them that it is worth investing in appropriate controls to utilize them. I would put bourbon and technology in that category.

I don't need to extol the virtues of technology nor to decry its obviously crude and seedy side. Both are well known and any discussion that starts there ends in a brouhaha of obvious and (frankly) childish epithets being thrown from all sides. I do, however, feel there are two dimensions that don't get the attention they deserve; one regarding technology in general, the other focused on portable mobile devices (smart phones, tablets, and the like) enhanced with a ubiquitous wireless internet.

First the global issue: technology has given us an unprecedented amount of free time. That is, much less time needs to be dedicated to simply providing food, shelter, and clothing. 300 years ago, almost everyone spent almost all of their time doing nothing by providing for basic needs of life for them and their families. Nowadays, though, nearly everyone spends a mere 40 to 60 hours a week on those things. That leaves 12 to 16 hours each weekday, an entire weekend, and three or four weeks a year of time when we are free to do whatever we want. That should be great; should be great. After all, we have a whole Torah of things to do; gemara, halacha, chesed, mitzvos. In fact, there are six constant mitzvos that can be exercised without interruption. The problem, of course, is that human beings are by nature/design extraordinarily lazy.

Which brings me to the personal/mobile/portable/cloud-connected technology of today. There is a quite excellent nerdy, online comic that I like: xkcd.com. He has a nice one titled, Isolation. In it, a crier/complainer decries, through the last two centuries, the growing isolationism engendered by personal information/entertainment entities: books, newspapers, magazines, TV, walkman, smart phone. (I think he should have included radio together with TV and moved the date to 1940 instead of 1960, but it's his venue.) His punchline is the crier/complainer being rebuffed with, "Dude. It's been two centuries. Take a hint."

Cute. And missed the real point. Namely, yes... it's been two centuries (more like two millennia); Dude. Erosion takes time. This has been an issue throughout history and our sages have warned about it through the ages. The latest technology, however, taken the last two millennia of erosion to a new level; not just quantitatively, but qualitatively. There are three dimensions to that:
  1. Personalization. I can now choose whatever experience I want whenever I want. I don't have to wait for 8:00PM (7:00PM Central) on Tuesdays to get my favorite comedy show. I want it now, I get it now. I want something else later, I get something else later.
  2. Rate of change: I don't have to walk to the library, nor bookshelf, nor even need to pick up the remote. I can instantly change to something completely different. All with no interruptions.
  3. Passivity. Of course listening and watching takes no effort. But even if I get bored of that and choose something interactive, it is mindlessly interactive. It is building and destroying virtual objects with no real consequences. Pure entertainment.
And to tie that all together, we can explore any aspect the internet has to offer with no oversight; we are hidden and anonymous (or so we feel) to all but the One. When R' Yochanan ben Zakkai was on his death bed, his students asked for a bracha (Brachos 28b). He told them, "May your fear of Heaven be as great as your fear other people." They were astonished and wondered aloud how that was a laudable goal. R' Yochanan ben Zakkai replied, "You should only hope to get to that level of fear! When a person commits a sin, he first looks to ensure no one sees him."

We've gone from the slow erosion of a stream of water to the destructive force of a water jet cutter that can cut through stone like butter. Worst of all, though, we've taken away the greatest barrier to sin: the fear of others seeing us.

Dude! Indeed, take a hint!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Love in the Time of Corona Virus/Anxiously Awaiting the Mashiach

Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl

Thought for the Day: David HaMelech's Five Stages of Finding HaShem In the World

Many of us "sing" (once you have heard what I call carrying a tune, you'll question how I can, in good conscience, use that verb, even with the quotation marks) Eishes Chayil before the Friday night Shabbos meal.  We feel like we are singing the praises of our wives.  In fact, I have also been to chasunas where the chasson proudly (sometimes even tearfully) sings Eishes Chayil to his new eishes chayil.  Beautiful.  Also wrong.  (The sentiments, of course, are not wrong; just a misunderstanding of the intent of the author of these exalted words.) Chazal (TB Brachos, 10a) tell us that when Sholmo HaMelech wrote the words "She opens her mouth Mwith wisdom; the torah of kindness is on her tongue", that he was referring to his father, Dovid HaMelech, who (I am continuing to quote Chazal here) lived in five worlds and sang a song of praise [to each].  It seems to me that "world" here means a perception of reality.  Four times Dovid had to readjust his perc

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק