It's remarkable what you can do with technology today. I'm sitting 35,000 feet over the Pacific reading emails and uploading and downloading files (including this article!) in preparation for our arrival back in Australia early Friday morning.

But is being on 24/7 (or for us Jews 24/6... thank G-d for Shabbos!) really a good thing? 

Are we perhaps so busy learning and interacting technologically that we miss out on other valuable aspects of our lives? More importantly,  how is this impacting on our children who from the youngest of ages are given instruments which provide instantaneous feedback? In this new world can  we still train them to delay instant gratification for a far more satisfying long term goal? While in New York I saw a study that indicates that the wiring of children's brains are affected by their constant exposure to technology from a very young age.

It often seems that celebrities are the modern prophets! On that basis, I would like to share with you an extract of an interview with Mayim Bialik that I have just read in USA Today. Bialik was a child star in the TV series Blossom and currently  plays Amy Fowler in the smash hit TV series Big Bang Theory. She is a religious Jewish woman and has a PhD in neuroscience - so she comes with credentials beyond being a TV star! Mayim is also the mother of two children, 5 & 8, whom she home-schools.

NO TECH AT HOME

"I don't use the Internet, yet, to teach my kids. It's good old-fashioned paper, pens and pencils. I know the Internet is available to me and them, and that it will be useful, but I'm teaching them the way I was taught."

NO VIDEO GAMES, TV OR INTERNET FOR THE KIDS

"I've never turned the television on for them ever, except to watch the Rose Bowl and Thanksgiving parade and Olympics."

This includes Big Bang and Blossom. "They've seen some episodes of Sesame Street on the iPad." It's no Internet at home — except once. "They wanted to see what (singer) Adele looked like, so I showed them."

BLOGGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Bialik is a blogger for the Jewish parenting website Kveller, where she announced her recent divorce from Michael Stone and has since written at length about her post-divorce life. She's also a frequent contributor to her Facebook and Twitter pages. "I use (social media) for professional purposes only. I post articles I write and sometimes post other people's articles."

You can read the entire interview here:

Rabbi Benzion Milecki OAM

Shabbat Matot-Masei July 5, 2013