Its Not For Me

Last night I was at an event in Tel Aviv in honor of the holiday of Tisha B'Av (the 9th of Av).  At this event there were various speakers, Rabbis and such. Now I know that we are all leading very busy lives, but it bothered me that there were so many religious girls who came late, sat in the front and were on their cell phones.

I feel that we are taking this constant contact a little too seriously.  And it is starting to just come off as rude.  One woman sitting behind one of these girls told her to put it away because the light from the screen was bothering her.  I feel that it should be common courtesy, you came to listen to this guy speak shouldn't you be listening?  If he is able to turn off for a few hours, surely you can too. Perhaps this is just the problem with the instant generation  Its not like when you are in school and you do not choose to be sitting there without your beloved cell phone. When you are a consenting adult and you decided to come to a lecture, especially if you are going to sit in the front row you should be paying attention.  I'm not saying any of this to convince myself that it is a bad habit because I know that it is and I am trying to cut back.  What are you doing to try and cut back?

ABC ran a very interesting article on the topic.  Sad to say that we may need someone else to help us curb our addiction to cell phones because just as one can be an alcoholic one can be addicted to using their cell phone.  I once heard a Rabbi speak about cell phones. He said that if you go one day without your cell phone on you and you still feel it vibrating or reach to your pocket to check then you are addicted. Looks like we're going to need some sort of rehab.