New York – As the average person grows more and more reliant on technological devices to keep them in tune with business and the outside world, many are not even aware they are losing touch with people around them and for some the dependence on technology borders on addiction.
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To combat this problem, Ohr Naava, a Brooklyn based organization that provides shiurim, socialization and networking opportunities for women, is launching an innovative project, calling on the public to pledge a minimum of one hour on Tzom Gedalaya to set aside all electronics and spend quality time with a friend, a loved one, davening, attending a shiur, or simply relaxing.
A YouTube clip released by Ohr Naava introducing the project, features R’ Shmuel Kaminetzky, assorted mechanchim, businessmen and entertainer Mordechai Ben David discussing how our obsession with keeping in touch electronically keeps us out of touch with those who matter most.
Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein, founder of Ohr Naava explains that by being connected to technology, “you are actually disconnected from everything else.”
Charlie Harary, a 34 year old lawyer from Woodmere, served as co-producer and director of the YouTube Clip entitled “Who Will You Spend Your Hour With?” which has already been viewed by over 10,000 people.
“In today’s day and age, people are so focused and addicted to their technology,” said Harary in an exclusive interview with VIN News. “People in restaurants are looking down at their phones instead of looking at each other. Technology is taking over, reducing the quality of our relationships with our parents and children and we are missing out on life, be it in aspects of our relationships, davening, learning or just hanging out with each other.”
Tzom Gedalya, falls out this year on October 2 and as the first weekday of the year, Harary calls it a “unique opportunity to start the year off right.”
To date people from all across the United states, Israel, Canada and Chile have pledged over 11,000 hour of disconnection at the Day To Disconnect website and Ohr Naava hopes to raise one million hours of disconnection for this project.
“If we can take off just one hour, it shows that we control of our technology and it doesn’t control us,” said Harary. “You can go to lunch and talk to your wife. You can sit down for a meal with your family and ignore your phone. You can go to Shul and leave your cell in the car. This is a new muscle we need to condition for ourselves.”
Okay, Ohr Naava, Kol hakavod. But one hour??? Have we really sunk so low that it would take a special effort to “disconnect” for a mere hour? Am I the only one who takes hours during the week to read, who sometimes doesn’t bother turning my cellphone on for over half a day, who takes over an hour to communicate to G-d via davening and reciting Tehillim, who picks up a land phone to call loved ones rather than text in shorthand, and who resists the urge to turn my computer on for at least one day every couple of weeks and often only in the pm on other days?
I suggest someone attempt to log a million of us who are not slaves to technology and still know how to stop and smell the roses. Maybe others would take a cue and begin to reconnect with the beautiful world around us, realizing their loss…
Where do I sign up?
Don’t we do this every week for 25 hours at a time? It’s called Shabbos.
Very nice!!! I agree 100%. But isn’t it funny that they are using “tech” to get the message out???
It used to be called “derech eretz,” and you didn’t need an organization to tell you to be considerate of other people.
I’d like to see an organization that helps people to spend an hour:
– walking on the sidewalk instead of the the middle of the gutter; (are they gutter people?)
– holding open a door for the next person;
– sharing the supermarket aisle instead of blocking it;
– davening by a seat, instead of directly in front of the bookcase and blocking everyone.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!
Great idea, but it’s scheduled for Tzom Gedaliah, so NO you cannot use that hour to have lunch with your wife or sit down with your family for a meal (unless you’re breaking the fast together)!
there is absolutely no point in this. ok so everyone does their hour and spends it watching netflix or eating at a pizza store. the hours over and life goes back to normal and nobody remembers this ever happened. what are they accomplishing?
Zecaria is a tzaddic really special person -im in
“You can go to lunch
and talk to your wife. You can sit down for a
meal with your family and ignore your phone.
Lunch Tzom Gedalya?
I don’t think people realize how connected we are to technologies that could permanently fail in a single second…
One large solar flare could destroy all of our computer networks, including the banks!
That means no electricity, no money and no food.
Did you know that the likelihood is so high that nuclear power plants have a 33% chance of being shut down by a solar flare over a 40 year period?
33% chance!!!!!!!
Consider this, you know those extremely dangerous jobs that no one wants to take, doing security in Iraq? They have a 5% chance of death!
Nuclear power plants have a 33% chance…..
Gramatically it should be”with Whom will You Spend the Hour?”
Hi, Berel13, #17
You are so right.
Maybe they will take an hour to study English and , finally, be able to communicate in an educated manner.
To #8 Why don 217;t people do this every day?? Elul is coming!! T 217;shuvah!!
The idea is that we shouldn’t be distracted from what or whom we are present with. Being someone who doesn’t own a cell phone for health reasons, I still struggle to be available to my family.
With all the perpetual bickering, petty point-scoring and non-stop in-fighting going on continuously here on VIN over the smallest of remarks how can we even agree whether to drink tea or coffee – let alone get כל עם ישראל to agree on a project like this?
Perhaps Rabbi Wallerstein would like to reimburse me and many others for the money we would lose from missed phone calls and time lost in responding to business email messages right before the expense-laden Yom Tov season. In this economy, every minute counts. This kind of thing is pointless because we have Shabbos and Yom Tov, but if you want to do it, do it on a Sunday in the summer (or Chanukah), not on a day when many have to catch up on work from the first day of RH and when we need to worry about upcoming Yamim Tovim,
Tzom Gedalia this year is on Shabbos.
This is a horrible initiative that wastes yiddishe parnassah and is completely impractical. I already disconnect from electronics every Shabbos and in fact the Torah explicitly tells us to work 6 days a week.
Why don’t they also have an initiative that says, hey, why don’t you take a vacation 2 weeks a year continuously every year, you know, reconnect with your family? Just go to Israel for 2 weeks every year, its only 2 weeks, why not? Oh and by the way when you are there, don’t check your email or cell phone. Reconnect with your loved ones.
When you come back, you’ll have all the time in the world to hang out at home…
Further, for those that actually need to be told to turn off their phone during shul, you need to speak to a therapist or a Rov as opposed to signing up for a silly one-off initiative.
Simply put that someone who has the leisure to be unavailable for large stretches of weekdays involved in such pursuits clearly does not have to work for a living. It is a simple fact. And further that this person thinks they are so special for doing so is the epitome of gaiva.
V’doik