As you read this, there’s a pretty good shot they’re arguing about Torah over at the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study. The Orthodox high-school and post-secondary school is the subject of this edition’s cover story.
This yeshiva has got to be one of the few schools in Wisconsin where high-school students get to holler at their teachers and it’s considered a good thing.
Here’s the yeshiva in a nutshell: If it’s morning, they’re arguing about Torah. If it’s afternoon, they’re arguing about Torah. If it’s night, they’re probably in the dorms arguing about Torah.
This ancient practice reverberates throughout our culture. Jewish culture shines in a way that’s tied to its openness to debate. You see hints of it everywhere. You see it in Israel, where it sometimes seems there are as many political parties as there are people. You see it here, with so many of us attracted to professions tied to critical thinking and debate.
But how can one push for what’s right if nobody is listening? The media has changed, perhaps making it less likely to hear those with whom we disagree. It seems we’ve lost something in America and even worldwide, and it’s something we Jews tend to value. We’ve lost some of the presence of opposing viewpoints.
Never mind the drain on the newspaper industry and the devaluation of objective journalism on TV, replaced in part by Fox News, Comedy Central programming and others. Social media is also part of the problem, walling us off from others’ opinions.
Consider your Facebook newsfeed, which ironically was called a “wall” in the early days of Facebook.
The Facebook algorithm doesn’t show you everything – it tends to show you items from “friends,” people who agree with you, and posts that those friends have “liked” or “shared.” People tend to like and share emotionally engaging items, like a photo of President Barack Obama hugging the First Lady after winning re-election in 2012, hitting a whopping 4.4 million likes.
People also tend to like and share funny and surprising items, but they don’t tend to share things that they think are too negative or could reflect poorly on them in front of absolutely everyone they know.
It’s an open secret among social media and online thinkers at today’s newspapers that people are more likely to share puppies, kittens and crime, as opposed to deep-thought articles. Journalism projects that take days or weeks to produce can bring far fewer hits than a good, sweet puppy.
Gone are the days when a few media outlets had a captive audience and whatever they covered was given our full attention.
The Internet and social media have given us so much, but it hasn’t been without some loss.
Rob Golub is editor of the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
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