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Connectivity on Shabbat

day of rest which avoids technology?” What is it about the use of technology, and connectivity and the internet above all, that brings the question of Shabbat observance to the fore?

Much has been written in recent years about the effects of constantly being connected to the internet, primarily through mobile devices, and all that entails: the prevalence of social media such as Facebook and twitter, and the constant access to email and work. In addition to the flurry of articles about Reboot’s National Day of Unplugging(the second one was observed on the Shabbat of March 4-5, 2011), the New York Times ran a series called “Your Brain on Computers,” and books like Nicholas Carr ’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains and Sherry Turkle ’s Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other are being widely read and discussed.** The argument found in many of these books and articles is that our use of the internet— and in particular, the practices of multitasking and constantly looking for new information— are altering everything from our brain chemistry to our relationships with our children and spouses. The titles of the articles in the New York Times series are indicative of the issues that they raise:“An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness,”“The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In,”“Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime,” and“Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction,” to name a few.”

In addition to the growing body of scientific literature is anecdotal evidence. Individuals who experiment with“unplugging” for limited periods of time use words like“unbearable” to describe their experience.”® Rabbis are far from immune; if anything, the extent to which our work requires multitasking might make us more vulnerable. There is the story of the rabbi whose toddler dropped his cell phone in the toilet when he kept using.it on his day off;* the rabbi who made a Rosh Hashanah resolution not to