Reply To: Texting For a Bachur

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word of the wise wrote:

so the question if there is something wrong!

for some reason they made something called kosher phone without text. so i can imagine that all the rabbonim who endorsed it from chassisuh to litvish had a reason. in eretz yisroel most people have kosher phones.

and i didnt understand why if your in a dangerous area how does text help?

The problem is that boys can more easily get involved with girls with texting. Of course, it can happen to anyone even without cellphones but this makes it so much easier that the Rabbonim decided there was a need for a Kosher phone.

Of course, texting can also be a very useful thing. It is very good for places where there is a lot of noise or poor service since you can get your message across more easily. I often use texting in basements where regular calls wouldn’t last long enough to have a conversation. It is also good if you need to tell someone something and there are people sleeping in the room. It is also good for sending information such as addresses and phone numbers, or for giving someone the proper spelling of a word/name. It is a lot easier to type these things out than to have to say it over in a conversation.

I use it all the time to give people phone numbers, anyone can text me anytime asking for Ploni’s number and all I have to do is find Ploni in my contact list and insert his number into a text message. It’s a lot easier than having to browse the contact list while talking on the phone and having to give the number over one number at a time, make sure the person heard everything correctly etc. especially if I am in a place with poor service or where there is a lot of background noise.

As with any new technology, there are many good uses for it but it can also be used for bad. The question is can you trust a teenager to use it properly and not abuse it and if you can’t trust him then is there a way to give him the technology in a way that can be limited/monitored. This is the same question we have with Internet, etc. A lot of new technology allows people to do things more easily and with more privacy which makes it a lot easier to be nichshal.