Feb 20 2013
By Nina Badzin at 4:33 pm
I participate actively in the email culture. Like most people I know, I use email from everything from work communication and checking in with friends and family, to discussing issues with my rabbi, my kids’ teachers, and even our family doctors. It’s fast, convenient, and for better or worse, we can go back to old emails to recover information if necessary. What’s not to like?
I’ll tell you what’s not to like–the sheer amount of messages in my inbox. The joy of email’s ease and speed will drown me, drown all of us, if we don’t get things under control soon. Read the rest of this entry →
Feb 1 2013
By Nina Badzin at 9:46 am
I have a hard time staying away from my iPhone. Too often my phone is on the table during lunch with a friend. I’m drawn to it while standing in line or whenever there’s two minutes to spare. Trust me, I’m not proud of my attachment to the thing. In my defense, I at least draw the line at using my phone inside the walls of a synagogue.
It seems that not using cell phones in shul was once standard practice among all synagogue goers from the most frequent to the occasional bar mitzvah attendees. I’m afraid those days are long gone. At a family “Tot Shabbat” service I recently attended at our Conservative synagogue (where the laws of Shabbat are technically observed) I noticed several parents and kids playing around with phones. During the dinner that followed, I saw some of the younger tots distracted with iPads.
It was disheartening. Read the rest of this entry →
