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This should be mandatory watching for almost (see below) every human being alive today. But especially for almost all parents and children, mechanchim and talmidim.
Note: See the comments for the criticisms which caused me to introduce the bold caveats above. This is a public television video, and it does contain a very brief display of a scantily clad female teenager (as part of a cautionary segment concerning what parents discover concerning their children's internet activity). If this scene is something that would prevent you from viewing a video, ashrecha! You are lucky to be part of the very small portion of today's society who may not be subject to most of the pitfalls that the overwhelming majority of even the most Orthodox Jewish society faces today.
Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer הרב יוסף גבריאל בקהופר
Done and done.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the printing press destroyed human memory and along with it, wisdom; while the new internet age is going to destroy deep thought. All that will be is massive and broad superficial knowledge and short vorts.
That massive and broad superficial knowledge will not - of course - take root in any person's or persons' brains. Retaining knowledge (except as it pertains to video games and the like) is so mid-20th century...
ReplyDeleteIt conflates multiple issues.
ReplyDeleteThe first is the shift in how we relate to time, and this isn't as new. Back when most society was agrarian (does that include shepherds?) time was measured by natural cycles. You got the eggs in the morning, even if that meant you did it earlier in the summer than in the winter. With the Renaissance, the success of Newtonian science (although this idea is more Galilean) and industralization, time became more of a line, and the day was planned by fixed clock hours. Then came the telegraph, the telephone, email, the cellphone, texting, IM, etc... and progressively our perception of time is in response to events, and not about a plan, a schedule or a cycle. It's from this cultural shift that we get the multitasking, as well as a need for constant stimulation, which is then in the culture our kids grow up in and is perhaps the cause for the rise in ADD.
The other cause is surfing and googling. Broad but shallow exposure to ideas. Thinking in soundbites. Not bothering to study up or remember anything.
Social networking combines the worst of both worlds. The main reason why Avodah is still on 1980s tech (the email list) is because it encourages use of an editor, or at least a sizable window. You can hold onto a post and reply days or weeks later. At the opposite end, FB comments scroll into oblivion in hours, come with a window that only holds 50 words or so, and has all those event-driven behaviors that foster impatience for a reply.
But it's WAY too early to say that the current fad is here to stay to the extent that it will change humanity on an existential level. Time will tell. If trends continue, they will. But if 1960s trends had continued, all of American Jewry today would be Conservative. The only trend that holds is the trend toward shorter and shorter lifetimes for trends.
Yes, I especially like the photo of the teenage girl in lingerie.......... :(
ReplyDeleteI don't know how you call yourself a Rabbi. Before I watch any video I have my wife check it out. She told me that already after a few seconds you see a very improperly dressed female. You are a makhti harabim מחטיא הרבים. According to Halakha you have no portion in the world to come. Do immediate Tshuva and ask forgiveness from the people who watched the video because of you.
ReplyDeleteWhat you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
DeleteI emended the post to reflect the concerns of the preceding two commenters.
ReplyDeleteI am anonymous #1. I think the post by anonymous #2 was way overboard... but I was gratified to see RYGB's emendation to the main post.
ReplyDeleteHatzlacha bakol!