Virtues of Virtual Relationships: Shiva and Social Media

I was sitting with my friend, T. at the shiva for her father. "I want you to write about this," she says suddenly. "I don't know how to write. I know you'll write something poignant, with humor, like you always do." We've taken care of the humor, at least. Here is the story. T. made aliyah as a … [Read more...]

Emotional Deficits, Matchmaking, Advocacy and More

I hope you'll enjoy today's collection of links. My good friend Anne, famous for taking the Burka pictures that got me started on the topic of hyper-tzniut, has begun her own blog for Israel advocacy known as Anne's Opinions.  Born in London, Anne has strong feelings about the British … [Read more...]

Video: Tuned-Out by Technology

Call over your teens and pre-teens to watch this excellent video about Facebook and a "tuned-out" family. Even if you have limited Hebrew, you'll understand 90%.  The scenes at the dinner table and at the end are especially good. It's produced by girls from the Lehave religious high school in … [Read more...]

Memories of A Bathing Suit

At an engagement party in another town I ran into E., an old friend from camp. We started chatting about Facebook. E., who was more into camp than I was, had used it to find other camp friends. I tried to explain to E. why I started using Facebook. Staying in touch with old friends is more … [Read more...]

Cyber-Bullying, Teens and Facebook

Image via CrunchBase The other night I went to a talk at my daughter's high school by Dr. Meyran Boniel-Nissim. Boniel-Nissim is a Haifa University researcher on teen internet usage  and its psycho-social connotations. In the old days, teens had to get out of the house to get into trouble. … [Read more...]

Funny Things My Kids Said in 2009

Image via Wikipedia I've collected my 2009 Facebook "status messages" about my two youngest children, in order to inflict them all on you at once. My son is now 8 and my daughter nearly six. Here they are, starting in January. Daughter: "What color do white and white make? Light … [Read more...]