I’m sure it will come as no surprise to those who have heard me speak Shabbos morning in shul over the course of the past year, that the issue of how technology affects our lives both as people and as Jews occupies a lot of my “sermonic” attention. The internet, television, and wireless technology are some of the most pervasive influences on our lives and the development of our children. Like many of you, my feeling is that it is useless to judge these things as to whether they are “kosher” or not. Rather, we must be conscious of how they influence our lives and how we ensure that they do so positively. With regard to the internet, I have mentioned on Shabbos the following article entitled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" which highlights some of the side-effects that internet use can have on our minds and our patience to engage topics that require more effort and time than most. I have also made reference to a book entitled, No: Why Kids - of All Ages - Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It, by a psychologist named David Walsh. The excerpt I mentioned in shul one Shabbos morning discussed how the media and marketing that we and our children are constantly exposed to has instilled our culture with a sense that everything worthwhile must be either “more, easy, fast, and fun.” There are many challenges in raising children in today’s society with all of its technological gifts. These are just a few of the things we have to be mindful of.

- Rabbi Chaim Poupko