Texting on Shabbos Is the Tip of the Iceberg
Steve Lipman describes the phenomenon of teens educated in modern Orthodox institutions texting one another on Shabbos in the June 24 Jewish Week. So widespread is the trend that it even has its own nomenclature: “half Shabbos.”
Lipman describes a recent Shabbaton in which fourteen of the seventeen teenagers present were texting — most quite openly — on Shabbos. In a follow-up letter to the Jewish Week Dr. Scott Goldberg and Dr. David Pelcovitz contest the magnitude of the phenomenon but not its existence based on their survey of 1 200 teenagers in modern Orthodox institutions. They put the percentage texting on Shabbos at 17.7 percent with another 15.5 percent surfing the Internet and 13.5 percent using their cell phones.
Even the latter numbers should provoke us to rend our garments. Though Lipman’s article dealt with the products of a modern Orthodox education it would be a mistake for any Orthodox population to imagine itself immune. Worse those engaged in the behaviors described represent only the tip of the iceberg of those who feel little connection to the fundamentals of Jewish belief — even if their alienation has not yet been expressed in action. Lipman does not describe the teenagers in question as being particularly rebellious or angry — just bored.
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