Why was What's App banned?

samantha87

Tue, Jun 16 2015, 8:34 pm

Why because it's an effective form of mass communication not subject to the editorial control of those doing the banning. It's a tool people have used to express disagreement or displeasure with the gedolim and their crowd. It's also used for group discussion of issues censored out of the chareidi newspapers. Evidently, as I don't have first hand knowledge.

If imamother was better known inn the Israeli chareidi world, they'd ban it too.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Jun 16 2015, 10:29 pm

I dont read yeshiva world news. I did not read whatever article the OP is talking about. But I have a question. Have these rabbanim lost the plot? Seriously. Banning everything just makes it more wanted by people to be used.
I say ban everything. Have everyone just sit at home never leaving, or doing anything. This makes me so upset.
The rabbanim have really lost the plot as to what is important in Judaism.

salt

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 12:18 am

Quote:

I think it's a little disrespectful to say that rabanim don't know what's important to Judaism. Just look at all the posts on this site to see how many husbands hooked to [filth], FB, messaging females, etc.
The Rabbanim give guidelines, that protect us from falling.

Take it or leave it.

They can't say it's ok to use Whatsapp for school mailing lists, but not for watching videos that your friends send round. It's ok for sending a photo of your baby to your mum, but not to your neighbour of the opposite gender, etc, so they say it's forbidden.
Maybe one day they'll come up with a protected whatsapp - like filtered internet.

imaima

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 12:40 am

salt wrote:

Quote:

Right, but the whole thing discredits them. People need to learn to self-control and differentiate, they don't need blanket bans.
When a rav bans such a universal thing as internet, for example, which, besides for shmutz, also gives parnassa and education to many people, then people realize that the rav never cared enough to find out a thing about internet, so the rav doesn't really care and doesn't know what exactly he is banning. Ergo, no respect for rav and his other, probably more reasonable bans and rules.

Just as you said - take it or leave it. Either people take all the bans, which only most blind-folded, simple people do, or leave it, sometimes they mean they leave judaism entirely. It's not really a healthy approach.

shabbatiscoming

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 12:52 am

salt wrote:

Quote:

I dont know any rabbanim where I live banning all of these new social media things. Never. Why are the arbbanim so afraid?
As for the posts about [filth] and all the like, even before the internet and all of the social media that there is today, if a man wanted to find [filth] or any of that stuff, there were always ways.
Guidlines from falling? Im sorry, in my community, BH I have never yet heard of someone falling because they are using whatsapp or facebook. They are adults and they know how to use these things the correct way.

And Im sorry but if you dont want to have these things, then get a kosher phone. it does not even have any way of sending messages.

champion

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 1:27 am

[quote="salt"]

Quote:

They can't say it's ok to use Whatsapp for school mailing lists, but not for watching videos that your friends send round. It's ok for sending a photo of your baby to your mum, but not to your neighbour of the opposite gender, etc, so they say it's forbidden.
Maybe one day they'll come up with a protected whatsapp - like filtered internet.

This is exactly the point. YES. people SHOULD be taught what is proper and what is not.
adults should realize that whatsapp is a tool
adults(and children should be taught) should know how to use tools properly.
adults should know how to differentiate between sending pictures to the girlfriends husband and messaging the school mailing list.
Banning everything is just the easy way out. its the non thinking way of living.
its saying that everybody is totally stupid and can't make these distinctions.
Sinners will always find their ways. Banning things won't stop them.

and protected whatsapp? are you being funny? what will this protection do?
if I try to send a picture to shloime from down the block it will know to stop me. But if I message my sons tutor it will let it through???????

wife613

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 1:29 am

Personally I don't agree with the banning. I also think that the rabbonim aren't informed properly about what these things are really about, they only hear what has gone wrong not what's gone right. My opinion is teach to use correctly and then there will be less "craving" for it. I have heard far too many stories of children who were banned, from be it alcohol, internet you name it, all in the name of what the rabbonim have said who have then gone to yeshiva/sem/left home and have gone totally over-board because they were never taught to use it correctly.

mommy3b2c

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 4:49 am

champion wrote:

I was going o write this. Bu you explained it well, so just writing that I agree.

In general, I take these bans with a grain of salt. They don't concern me, and have nothing to do with my life. I dont think the rabbanim are really banning these things. I think some zealots with a need to feel important shove papers in their faces and they sign because they are misled.

WeAreOne

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 5:21 am

Why are regular phones, or even kosher phones, allowed? You can say loshon hara through them and you can also talk to "your neighbor of a different gender".
Maybe we should stop talking altogether.
Why not take the positive of things? These things are controllable - Whatsapp doesn't to it to us if we install it on our phone - we use it to do it those things - it's all about self-control.

Anything in the world can be used positively and negatively - it's our job to make everything for the positive (not by banning).

gp2.0

Wed, Jun 17 2015, 5:22 am

Why not? Banning is this generation's legacy.

Rabbonim used to write seforim and pasken real, pressing issues. Some of them still do. The ones that aren't capable and still want to leave a legacy ban stuff. It's a way for them to be remembered, I guess. They think they're making a mark on the world.

P.S. I don't see what "respect to gedolim" has to do with this. I respect a gadol when he says something in a field he's familiar with - gemara perhaps, or halacha. If the president of the united states, or a top surgeon, told me that I can't use whatsapp, I'd pretty much react the same way. It's not their field of expertise, hence their opinion on this matter has no weight.