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Is there really any good use for a tablet or a reason to own one other than a throwaway to keep the kids busy? I feel like most use either a phone or an actual PC/Laptop for real business. Tablet is somewhere clumsily in between.
“other than a throwaway to keep the kids busy,”
Thank you for contributing to the woes of educators in our community by shortening the attention span of your children to nil by giving them screens to keep them busy. There are a lot of things that can keep kids busy – ever try giving a 5 year old boy a cardboard box? It becomes his spaceship.
Has long as it is only in Hebrew it should not be an issue, not make sure its not in Arabic or English
With most airlines eliminating the screens on the back of the seats (even in business class), having a tablet is a must for x/country and overseas flights. My aging eyes really are unable to read an ebook or watch a movie on a tiny phone screen for 6 hours.
No movies? Heavens..whatever will you do?
AVD: Who said “no movies”. More movies than ever….multiple choices for movies, documentaries,etc. on most overseas flights. Its just BYOS (bring your own screen) and thats where tablets work much better than iphones or laptops. The former is too small and the latter too prone to getting smashed by the guy in front of you leaning his seat back.
I don’t have a smart phone and a tablet is an easy way to for me to deal with reading as I age. I’ve got arthritis in my hands and my vision isn’t great. I can zoom in and scale the visual and adjust the contrast, it’s lighter weight than most of the non fiction I read. The tablet saves room on my lap for my cat, space that would be unavailable with a laptop. I don’t have children and have no basis for an opinion on kids and tablets.
Tablet works great for 12 year old and nine year old. We fly to israel every sukkos and I don’t feel comfortable letting them watch whatever the choose on the plane. The tablet is tagged and more comforting for my wife and I to allow them use it unsupervised.
@get ur device tagged, I am impressed, you joined just to say this statement
RR: Airplane or anywhere I don’t want to open my considerably more expensive laptop. I also used it on an Alaska hiking trip this summer and it was an adequate alternative (although difficult to do any serious document editing or typing w/o a separate keyboard). Also seems to work as an effective “pacifier” for grandkids on longer roadtrips and flights.
@get ur device tagged, I am impressed, you joined just to say this statement
I’m both impressed and super grateful. I know that both Amil and GH are of and age and mindset were they do not need people commenting on their tablet use but it does jar me a bit to see a conversation about movie watching/accessibility across the board as if it is just a given.
Just pointing out that my strong opposition of screens came primarily from a place of cognitive development before it was even a religious issue.
We said no to screens to our kids during the early childhood years because once you start giving in “just for long car rides” it quickly becomes “just for car rides” and “just on Fridays when I’m desperate”, “just when I really don’t have energy” and eventually “just when they scream and yell loud enough that I can’t listen anymore”. I found NO to be an easier answer to this than ongoing battles.
Having said that – as a pediatric OT I (and colleagues) saw glimmers of potential developmental damage way back in the 90’s and it has all been realized. There are so many issues (from development of hand function to deficits in ability to process time and space) that I can’t help but mention it even tho I know it’s not gonna make too much of a difference right now.
There is also the addictive component, much stronger for kids who have and reading or attention issues who find the tablet to be a less effortful place to be.
Those issues are all besides the content, bitul zman and tznius issues that most of you have already heard and know.
syag – very well said
One plus of a tablet that only works off of wifi is that is limits the screen time. Instead of walking around with a smartphone all day and playing with it, it limits you to where and when you could be wasting time. I know of a yeshiva that encouraged the bochrim to get rid of their smartphones (which were all filtered and monitered by the yeshiva) for a simple flip phone and have a tablet instead.
rescue, and did that yeshiva have more bochurim learning or did they just cocoon themselves in wherever there was wifi?
thank you
correction – thank you for the compliment.
regarding your next comment, that’s really uncalled for. If you knew the boys it would have qualified as lashon hora (also a problematic and easy to trespass lav). Im not even sure it isn’t lashon hora in this context. It is permissable to be michazek people when they grow even if they still aren’t where you have decided they should be.
” I know of a yeshiva that encouraged the bochrim to get rid of their smartphones (which were all filtered and monitered by the yeshiva) for a simple flip phone and have a tablet instead”
I’m assuming the bochurim are in school part time because otherwise why does a bachur need a smartphone or tablet?
I bought myself a tablet this summer to use instead of my computer as well. I buy myself cheap slow smart phones that are too annoying to use for much to keep my own use limited but I often need to book flights and deal with lots and lots of emails and documents. I find that the tablet is much less distracting and the lack of wifi adds a layer of uselessness for me. I have been able to go weeks without using my computer and the lack of games makes it worthless to anyone else who might want it.
syag, i don’t see how asking a simple question – if the strategy worked – is lashon hora, especially if I have no idea which yeshiva it is.
fuhn a kashya shtarbt min nisht
A tablet can be used for reading ebooks. A smartphone is too small, and a laptop (or pc) is overkill for reading a text. Especially for non-commercial materials (including many sefarim), there is tremendous potential there since an ebook is much cheaper than a printed book. A large amount of book publishing is being done electronically, and a great many genre (e.g. reference books, technical manuals, newspapers) are clearly moving towards being entire electronic.
There is no wifi in yeshiva. This was more for off shabbosim and bein hazmanim. While in yeshiva the yeshiva provided flip phones, so this was to encourage them to get rid of the smartphone at those times.
I don’t know if you are aware of what is really going on then with such a question. A lot of bochrim want and/or have smartphones. Excluding the bochrim who are really serious about learning, based on my own experience and observations the more stringent a yeshiva is about ossuring them the more bochrim want and hide them. My son was in Mir Yerushalayim last year and while Mir has a policy, the facts on the ground are the a lot just have 2 phones at the begining of the zman when they do their check and then get rid of them. When my son needed wifi for a certain period, he went to look to buy a hotspot, and was offered to borrow one from someone he met in the store learning in a yeshiva which is much more choshuv on the resume than the Mir. When I asked why a bochur in that yeshiva would have a hotspot he told me that half the place there has, they are only there for the resume. Asking why a bochur needs one is akin to asking why does there have to be chulent and schnapps by a kiddush in shul, what’s wrong with just some herring and kugel or even just herring. This is the world we live in, sticking our head in the sand and asking why they need instead of developing a way to teach them to use it the right away as needed is just poor parenting. There are Roshei Yeshiva that get this and there are those that don’t. When I spoke to my son’s Rosh Yeshiva about the 2 phones at Mir clearly against the policy the Rosh Yeshiva (the son of a big well known Rosh Yeshiva/talmid chacham who is involved in setting policy for this yeshiva) said to me and I quote “They just don’t understand the bochrim over there” and encouraged me to follow the 2 phone plan.
syag > glimmers of potential developmental damage
I agree with that, but one should also look at developmental advantages. It is still an open question which one prevails, and depends on how family handle devices and life in general. I am all for careful approach to new things, but I am sure people complained that because of the evil cars, people will forget how to feed horses, and phones will stop people from writing letters, etc.
On the damage side, there are approaches to manage – have devices in public room, defined time access, etc. On the advantage: if kids see parents using devices responsibly: for work, comms, learning, YWN :), you can expect them to do the same eventually.
In my humble experience, trying to fight inappropriate behaviors with early teens is a losing battle – smart kids can break through any filters you can create and they have more time on their hands than I do … But once they started using everything constructively, things turned. No need to teach kids chores – I can just ask them to google how to use the vacuum.
A yeshiva in LA that has bochrim enrolled in a public online school has 2 floors: learning floor is device free, the “general studies” floor has laptops to use for a couple of hours a day.
Syag, as an OT, what issues do you see with pepole overusing computers?
“I know that both Amil and GH are of and age and mindset [where] they do not need people commenting on their tablet use..”
Syag: Thanks for the “age” comment and avoiding the usual hyperbole about internet, movies, etc. I’ll readily admit that I don’t travel with a sefer on an overnight flight overseas or a redeye return from the west coast. My tablet movie choices are incredibly boring and the pritzus is generally of the National Geographic/Discovery Channel genre of wildlife shiduchim. Likewise for my E-books. After several hours with a degree of luck (and an Ambien) I can some sleep before landing.
Many people who strictly use a flip phone, but also run a business on the go keep a tablet in their car so they can have access on demand without having a distraction/temptation always in their hands/pockets.
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