In the News (from Physorg): “Twitter ain’t cool, British teenager tells global investors” 15-year-old Briton has set the financial world abuzz with a research note penned for a major US bank in which he reveals teenagers’ media habits – including that Twitter is just not cool. The research note – which has been circulated to Morgan Stanley clients – reveals that while teenagers consume a huge variety of media, from television to computer games to the Internet and music, they are unwilling to pay for it. “They rarely listen to the radio or buy CDs, preferring to use websites that stream music or to download it illegally,” teenager Matthew Robson wrote in his report.

Robson says teenagers watch television but do not have time to watch regular programs, particularly when they can watch them afterwards online, and says his peers have no time for outdoor advertising or banner ads on websites, preferring instead viral marketing. The report concludes with a helpful list of what is hot and what is not: anything with a touch screen, mobile phones with large capacity for music and “really big tellies” are desirable.

My Comment: People don’t even imagine how much technology will change their lives, culture, relationships and preferences. Ten years from now, the world will be very different, emptier. As people become more and more interconnected, they will expose the emptiness between them, and thus they will face a crisis of man living in an empty world.

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A question I received: Modern society is reliant on information. Now, in this time of crisis, the question of information overload becomes very real. Information overload refers to a situation where a person becomes a slave not only to material things but also to information; a person loses himself, drowns and detaches from his “I.”

My Answer: Actually, a person has yet to acquire his “I,” so he doesn’t have anything to lose. He is born into a specific situation without having any say about it. He has no choice as to his natural abilities, his personality traits, his family or upbringing. The clothes he wears, the way in which he sits, the food he eats, the way he speaks and the way he thinks are all things he absorbs from the society around him. Society teaches him to behave the way he does, and he acts according to the examples, conventions and values that he absorbed. Therefore, he does not have his own “I.”

Now, getting back to your question: When I go on the internet, I am not overloaded with information. I look for the things that interest me: a synopsis of today’s news or the latest in science. I am not overloaded with information because everything else on the Internet – 99% of its resources, just don’t exist for me. If a person is focused on an important goal, then he does not want to waste time on things that are less important.

In other words, everything depends on a person’s desires. If one’s desires are a level higher than what the current sources of mass information are able to offer (and frankly, today’s huge supply of information does not offer people anything but garbage), then a person does not see this information. Rather, he sees beyond this supply of information.

Thus, I would once again like to emphasize the importance of education, because it is the only means to change the society.

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In the News (translated from ami-tass.ru): RuNet (the Russian Internet) is proud to open up a competition called, “Fighting Dirt,” for the best positive Internet-resource for youth.

My Comment: A person is a product of his society. He is constantly under the influence of society, and therefore, the only thing we have to care about is the social influence. This is what we must change, rather than the individuals.

The mass media must have freedom and diversity when it comes to how they present their information, but the information presented has to be useful. It has to tell people about the global world and it has to be amicable, to match the system of Nature. We have to develop all the things that favor altruism, and eliminate all the things that favor egoism.

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A question I received: You are saying that nature demands that we reach the right kind of connection between us. This week hackers attacked and almost destroyed a web community, Facebook. If nature, the general system of creation, desires to establish a connection between people, why doesn’t it support this network, which reveals a connection between people?

My Answer: Maybe Facebook has exhausted itself in its current form. Instead of trying to protect Facebook from hackers, we have to change it. I believe there is a time, place, and purpose for everything. If forces of opposition are emerging, it means the phenomenon needs to change or disappear. These are just forces of influence, and there is nothing artificial in the world. We have to accept that this is how change and development take place. We shouldn’t react negatively to anything, but rather treat everything as the revelation of evil. When new states cease to emerge, it is a sign that you have reached the Final Correction. However, before that, even the worst state to be revealed isn’t bad in and of itself, but rather, it only reveals the evil to you.

This is how we should view everything. Our greatest enemies reveal the evil in us, and they are not evil on their own. Still, for now you have to eliminate them in order to have an opportunity to perform corrections in our world as quickly as possible. You must eliminate them because they don’t allow you to be corrected, and not because you hate them. You should hate them because they don’t allow you to perform the correction. Then your actions will be justified.
(From the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article, “One Precept,” on 03.05.2009)

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In the News (from MacArthur Foundation): “New Study Shows Time Spent Online Important for Teen Development” There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.

My Comment: This positive effect is not actually coming from the inanimate internet network or from the communication that’s stupid and pointless for the most part, but from conformity to the law of Nature, which drives us toward globalization and integration.

If the world wide web will incorporate elements of authentic cooperation, such as games based on interaction instead of virtual violence, simulating the corrected world (even for an egoistic reward – Lo Lishma), then we will advance and reveal the benefits of cooperation. Then, according to the rule, “habit becomes second nature” (Ergel Naase Teva Sheni), we will help the young generation progress toward the quality of Nature – bestowal and love (Lishma).

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In the News: (translated from RUMetrika): Pop-up ads are the most annoying type of Internet advertising. They irritate 78% of users, while banners irritate only 7.6%.

My Comment: Pop-up windows are perceived as a barrier to something desired. This is why they instigate hatred. It is a clear case of anti-advertising.

We need to know and understand egoism! If we want to get in egoism’s way, then we have to offer it something that it will find more attractive at the present moment – and it’s very difficult to guess what that is!

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In the News (from comScore): “Global Internet Audience Surpasses 1 billion Visitors” Asia-Pacific Region Accounts for 41 Percent of Internet Users, Europe – 28%, North America – 18%, Latin America – 7%, Middle East & Africa – 5%.

My Comment: This shows how united people have become by means of technology. People are joining different communities and the boundaries between them are fading away. Most important, this shows that the world is technologically ready for a global education, so we can become similar to Nature by having a universal, integral connection with one another.

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Two questions I received on virtual connections:

Question: I am living in Malaysia (a part of South East Asia) and here there is no physical group I can connect to. The only means for connection is through the virtual group, which is what I am doing now. But it is difficult to participate virtually due to time differences. How can I change my environment to influence me towards the goal?

My Answer: It’s enough to be virtually connected with us and to attend a Congress when you have the opportunity, such as the one that will be held in Philadelphia on May 15-17, 2009.

Question: Lately I have been finding people who think like me in different social sites on the Internet. Can I consider them a group? My problem is that the nearest Kabbalah center is 70 km away from me.

My Answer: Of course. If you connect with them because you are advancing together toward a common goal – similarity to the Creator, then you would be a group even if you had no Internet connection. The technological connections in our world were developed only in order to correct the inner connections between people, which happen “from soul to soul.”

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In the News: (from TNS): “Online news is ‘highly trusted’ by two fifths (40%) of those polled” Online news seems to be globally widespread with an average of two fifths (40%) across all 16 countries in the report trusting online news, while traditional press is decreasing (39%). 10% of respondents trust blogs, Wikipedia (24%) is as highly trusted as newspapers.

My Comment: In the future, as we will try to minimize our actions and expenses, the printing industry, including books, will become replaced by the electronic industry. The informational sectors of the Internet, such as Wikipedia, will become more objective and will gain people’s trust. But for the time being they are ruled by egoism, envy, competition and prejudice.

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Three questions I received on using the internet as a means to connect:

Question: Research indicates that 11 out of 100 global citizens have access to computers and Internet. How can we feel like one society when just a few of us in the world can actually connect virtually?

My Answer: Initially, the connection between people was not created by the Internet, but by the Creator. Our souls are rigidly connected in one system. Thoughts and desires pass directly from soul to soul, and not through the web. Regardless of having the Internet or not, everyone will feel that they belong to the entire world in equal measure.

Question: If the global crisis harms the Internet, what will happen to our dissemination and the virtual groups?

My Answer: We must do everything we can to ensure that our friends all over the world can stay connected to us. If the world will need us, then we will certainly retain the opportunity to connect to the world. Perhaps we will receive even greater opportunities to do so.

Question: I had an idea during the Blackpool Congress: I was thinking about old people, who are unable to use computers. I think it would be great to give them the possibility to feel unity. We could also tell them about reality, freedom of choice, and how to see the world from the point of view of Kabbalah. This could lead to more actions made by this group of “aware old people.” If I try to develop this kind of thing with the “old people group” of my town, do you think it could be useful?

My Answer: One’s age is completely irrelevant when it comes to studying Kabbalah, because the soul has no age. Uniting with the idea already corrects the soul. Try it! I hope that once we reach a certain level of success in our dissemination to the masses, the television channels will become interested in our TV programs.

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