Thread by @rabbisacks

THREAD #Elul -> A few years ago a newspaper headline caught my eye: “Streaming instead of dreaming”. Using phones or tablets before bedtime, it said, is stopping kids from sleeping.

A series of research exercises suggested that young people who use electronic devices around bedtime were twice as likely to have inadequate sleep and three times more likely to feel drowsy the next day. Even having one in the room and not using it, is, they said, bad for sleep.

A series of research exercises suggested that young people who use electronic devices around bedtime were twice as likely to have inadequate sleep and three times more likely to feel drowsy the next day. Even having one in the room and not using it, is, they said, bad for sleep.

It wasn’t just spoiling their sleep. It was robbing them of social skills, shortening their attention spans, and disrupting family meals.

So she and her family made a radical decision. Once a week they would have a screen free day. No phones, no tablets, no laptops, no TVs. Just family and friends, talking together, eating together, celebrating life without the distraction of being 24/7 online.

It’s been tough but terrific, she said. What enthralled me was the name she gave it. Some call it a digital detox, she said. We call it our screen Sabbath.

Wow. Well done Moses, I thought. Three thousand years ago you gave us the Sabbath to free us from slavery to Pharaoh, and now we’ve rediscovered it to give us freedom from smartphones.

Yet maybe the principle’s the same. Whether it’s building pyramids or digital devices, we sometimes forget that technology is made to serve us. We were not made to serve technology.

So whether it’s an hour a day or a day a week, let’s switch off our screens, enjoy one another face to face, and rediscover the magic of dreaming, not streaming. And on that note, I wish you all a #ShabbatShalom!