Written by: Crown Heights M.U.S.T. Committee
With a new year comes new classes so it’s time to relaunch M.U.S.T. in our community!
Mothers Unite To Stall Technology, or M.U.S.T., is a groundbreaking movement encouraging parents to delay the age that children are allowed *personal ownership of smart devices* . (Allowing children the use of a shared, family device is a decision parents should make individually.) The program’s efficacy is most successful when class parents present a united front, thereby greatly reducing peer pressure. Without the distractions and dangers of smart devices, our children can thrive and succeed.
From the incredible feedback we received from our community and beyond, we are inspired to create pacts across all elementary grades. Creating a pact means coming to an official agreement with the other mothers in your class regarding the technology use of the children. Agreeing to the pact means upholding these specific limitations in your home, confidently knowing that you have the support of other mothers in your class.
M.U.S.T. Crown Heights hosted a community-wide event in June that had far reaching effects on the entire Chabad community, and beyond. Schools from all over the USA, Canada, and even Australia have reached out to M.U.S.T. to find out how they can introduce this wonderful initiative in their communities and schools. Our hope is that the enthusiastic interest translates into action so that the M.U.S.T. mission is realized.
At the M.U.S.T. event Dr. Eli Rosen expounded on the dangers of technology and social media to our youth, “I’m seeing something I’ve never seen before. An epidemic of anxiety in the children… Eleven-year-olds with anorexia…13-year-olds not going to school… And these are kids from beautiful families. These aren’t neglectful parents… And I’m seeing 15-year-olds who are frankly suicidal..It’s profoundly disturbing… [There’s a] disconnect, which is at the root of the epidemic of anxiety and all of its manifestations.”
Dr. Rosen compared constantly exposing children to technology, starting as early as two years of age, to giving alcohol to a young child which negatively affects a developing brain. Kids should be playing and connecting to the people around them, and not internally preoccupied with worry and sadness and feelings of inadequacy. He finished off by saying that giving our kids smart devices has been a “failed experiment” and that we need to build the momentum of the M.U.S.T. agenda so that children can develop healthily and happily.
We know that we can give our children a healthier future. We need YOUR help to get the M.U.S.T. momentum to translate into real action! When your class ambassadors discuss the goals of the pact on your class whatsapp group, please chime in to help create a realistic pact for your child’s class. With Hashem’s help we hope to report back to you that pacts were signed across all elementary grades in all Crown Heights schools!
VIDEO: Replay MUST Event:
Please visit our website must-ch.org for more information. If you have any feedback or questions, please email us mustcrownheights@gmail.com.
Very supportive!
Thank you for doing this!
Without getting into the actual issues of today’s technology, every generation has its temptations and klipas noga. I think if we’d teach critical thinking – how to address any issue and decide what “right”, rather than just dictating the young what we think is right, empowers them to make decisions, regardless of whether someone is watching
Technology will always be there and kids will be tempted at a much younger age. Teaching kids critical thinking is imperative and a foundation skill. Also teaching kids to understand what it means to be jewish in this world and our mission to be a light to the other nations. What this means in practical terms and how we apply these concepts in our daily living and choices is what needs to be the focus.
Would you say the same regarding a knife and a child. Or possibly a gun and a teenager. We are talking about developing minds that are sponges. Talk is extremely important but that doesn’t negate this initiative