I have been challenged. The gauntlet has been thrown. Jak Black has written a critical post on his own blog saying that that my arguments do little to show enough positive value in the internet to make it worthwhile and asks, “If there isn't that much to gain, and quite a bit to loose, why risk souls for so little?”
I quite understand the Charedi POV. As I said, I agree with them about the dangers. But as I also said the difference between your view and mine is that you don’t think the benefit is worth the risk. I clearly do. You have repeatedly challenged me to come up with examples proving my contention. My response has been along the lines that I believe the benefits to be self evident for anyone who has access to the internet and uses it to any degree at all and I included a semi tongue-in-cheek reference to mapquest as an example. But in point of fact this very small fraction of the advantages of the internet demonstrates its advantages. I didn’t think I would have to explain the obvious but here goes:
Mapquest is the easiest and quickest way to get instruction from anywhere in the US to anywhere in the US. It is done in a matter of moments. You instantly receive detailed and clear step by step instructions of how to do it. A map of the route, the time of travel estimated for the entire trip along with the times estimated for each segment of travel is included as well... ready to print out on one or two sheets of paper.
Of course it is true that one can get instructions from point A to point B in other ways. You can ask the “place” to which you are traveling to give you instructions. You can go to AAA and get a “Triptik” or have it mailed to you. But those are either not consistently reliable, or involve a lot of leg work and/or time and sometimes addtional expense. Asking directions from people who don’t necessarily know how to give them can be quite frustrating to follow and can easily lead to getting lost. This rarely happens with mapquest. With the internet it is virtually instant and indispensable when time is of the essence. If you are behind schedule and need to get to a meeting across town in some location you aren’t familiar with, try following someone’s verbal instructions over the phone without getting lost. You may copy them down wrong or they may have inadvertently given you a wrong instruction (turn right when he meant bear right). With mapquest you have consistently accurate instruction at a moment's notice whenever you need it.
Then there is Daf Yomi. If I want to hear a Shiur on the Daf quickly or at my own pace I can do so at the click of a mouse anywhere in the world in my choice of two versions in English, Yeshivish, French, Yiddish, or Hebrew. Sure... I can take my Gemarah along or my Artscroll but there is nothing like a repeatable Shiur at my own pace. It’s like having a Rebbe traveling along with me wherever I go.
These are just two examples of where it benefits me alone. Multiply this by the outer limits of your imagination and it should be easily understood the number of good websites are nearly immeasurable. Some are more beneficial than others. Some website help you understand a disease that a child, God forbid, might been diagnosed with. True, you can go to a medical library and get the information there. But isn’t clear by now that the internet brings virtually all those resources and infinitely more into your home in a flash, without the need to expend travel time getting there and expend expensive gasoline driving there? The internet is simply the largest database in the world at your fingertips with search engines that makes research near instantaneous. Your argument that there are other ways to get the same inforamtion you can on the internet makes it of little value... is no better than saying that it is of little value flying across the ocean because there are other ways of getting there, or other ways of getting across town without motorized vehicle, or other ways to communicate over long distances without a telephone.
But as I said the internet’s downside is equally as accessible as its upside and the dangers that Charedim talk about are quite real. But to me the advantages of the internet are so great that it is certainly worthwhile having in your home. The dangers are serious and have to be dealt with, but not by banning its use altogether.
And Jak, you do use it. That you concede to the Charedi argument of the evil outweighing the good, therefore it should be banned... and that you are just using it B’Issur is disingenuous. Good people do not do evil things on a regular basis. One may fall victim occasionally to a Taavah but if one continually does something quite regularly it belies the contention that he really thinks he is doing something wrong. You have a blog. You write on it frequently about issues that matter to you, perhaps even giving Mussar in some of your posts. You can’t be doing that and simultaneously think you are doing something wrong.
You then further explain your usage of the internet by saying you have enough strength of character to never access evil sites. As you say:
“ I am a happily married man with a strong foundation in hashkafa, and very deep roots in my world. I do not claim that this is proof against all the ills of the Internet, but it does help to combat most of them.”
This is precisely one of the arguments put forth by Centrists. Thank you for making it. We believe that strength of character means something... and if you have it, then exposure to the internet’s evil sites become drastically reduced. I never accessed a porn site. And I’ll bet you never did either.
To that end, developing character in a child will enable them to make good life choices. It is our obligation as parents to instill those character traits in children by teaching those values. This is done mostly through example or role modeling. A child pays far more attention to what you do than what you say. If he knows that you access the internet or have a blog he will see right through your preaching against it. It will take on the aura of the forbidden fruit and make things even worse for him than if you were consistent about it. The better approach is to grant that the internet does indeed have positive value and that is how you use it. And then see to it that he or she uses it properly and under supervision.
Finally, my original post was generated by a comment made by a commentator on Hirhurim that said the real fear of Charedim is that even with good filters a child will still not be protected from ideas like mine which are not in lock step with their Hashkafa. I think he may be right. It is probably more about keeping their Chinuch pure... Al Taharas Hakodesh... than about dangers which, with some effort can be reasonably controlled. IOW it is about making sure their brains stay completely washed of anything other than Charedi Hashkafos.
