When we open our computers, it’s our doors we shut,” is the central message in “Look Up,” a viral video eschewing the use of social media, computers and phones when living and experiencing life. I appreciate what it speaks to, but I cannot help noticing the profound irony that without social media, this message doesn’t get shared. In fact, when this video travels across social media – and it’s been seen by over 20 million people – it’s typically under the headline that it “must be seen by everybody!” Am I the only one to find that both funny and a bit sad?
The need for breast-beating is human, so I get it, but let’s not make more of it than it is. Like all technologies – ancient and contemporary – including the ones this video bemoan – doors are closed and windows are opened, opportunities are lost and new ones are created. The sharp dichotomies the author draws are (as with most such dichotomies) false.
That we have few wisdoms and practices to help mediate the challenges we face is a real challenge. That such needs give rise to a few new Luddites isn’t surprising. That we blindly allow our hearts to follow those fears is, I hope, not the next step we take.
I wonder how the creator of this video would address the mourners who find community online, the birthday wishes felt from thousands of miles away, the bridges built between people who would otherwise never even know of each other’s existence, let alone communicate with one another across political, religious, and economic boundaries?
On the most personal level, how would the narrator in this clip respond to my teenage daughter who felt – through the social media and technologies that are bemoaned here – the very real presence of her friends as she lay in a hospital bed waiting to see if she had cancer?
Instead of either blindly dismissing, or mindlessly celebrating new technology, try this: Once each day – perhaps when you log on – ask yourself 2 simple questions:
1.?? ?What is great about the technology I’m about to use?
2.?? ?Where should I exercise caution with something as powerful as this technology?
Like so many moments, especially those that are new, we habitually think in terms of either/or. If we could just step back a bit, and look over the course of our lives, I think we’d make the most of things with a both/and perspective.
I’m all for sounding a note of caution about the intoxicating, even potentially addicting, nature of communication technology. I’m also all for celebrating its ongoing power to make a positive difference in the world as a whole, and in the intimate corners of individual lives.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”