Hold the Phone

Longtime readers of this column will recall that over the years, I’ve written quite a bit about what many gedolei Torah have called the “challenge of our generation”: how to battle the effects of digital technology on our spiritual and moral lives.

My sense is that with the passage of time, the understanding that a Jew needs to filter his phones and computers has gained ever-widening mainstream acceptance. That’s not to say that everyone, or even most frum Jews, filter their devices.

It is to say, rather, that filtering is no longer looked upon as something only for frummies. The Technology Assistance Group (TAG) Lakewood office reports receiving some 30,000 filtering-related requests for assistance this year. That’s a lot of calls, and that’s very good news.

At the same time, however, there seems to be an ongoing desensitization to, and resolve to resist, the digital dangers against which no filter can protect. There isn’t now, nor will there ever be, a filter to shield our Jewish selves from the infiltration into our homes and hearts of gentile society’s values and outlook via smartphones. Nor will there ever be a filter to protect us from the damage such phones do to our relationships with our spouses and children and parents, or to other, subtle aspects of our lives.