I recently walked into the 3rd grade Family Education program and looked into a sea of people, young and old, and one thing connected them. They were all looking down and playing with their phones, 8 year-olds and 38 year-olds, all touching screens, reading, responding, chasing angry birds or doing fruit ninja, or checking email or texting.
I turned to the 12th grade madrich (student helper) and I said, "Ah, family programming, where the entire family is on their cell phones". The madrich looked out into the room and was shocked. "Third graders!", he exclaimed. That’s ridiculous! I didn’t get my phone until middle school."
As the purchaser of a phone for an "under-ager", I feel this desire among our children to be able to be connected and connected means to be able to receive and send text messages. Our teens no longer check their emails and only use their email when they have to. The other day, I asked Margot, my 16 year-old about her history assignment (she had missed school) and she said she couldn’t tell what she was supposed to do, because the teacher had changed what was posted on the portal and none of her friends was online right now (meaning not on Facebook). I suggested that she could actually call a student and she looked at me like I was from Mars.
Back to that third grade family program….once the program began, the phones went away. Parents and kids knew they were there to be with each other. Learning happened, we practiced lighting the menorah, we heard a story, we played some dreidl. We were able to connect, even without electricity.
Surveys of young Jewish adults frequently tell us that Jewish summer camping and extended Israel trips (four weeks or more) are the best ways for us to spend money in order to help assure that our young people identify with the Jewish community. Yet, we know that those activities are the least "wired" times of their lives. These moments are high-touch and not high-tech.
Our challenge as a congregation and as an institution of learning is to create connections with one another, through both of these ways, through Facebook and face time, through holding hands at the end of services and pokes on Facebook, through texting and connecting with texts. The world is changing, but the basic need to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves is universal.
I know we are up to the challenge.
