aries2756 – “when someone starts a thread to knock others who are doing things THEY don’t approve of I believe it is counter productive to the concept of ahavas yisroel.”
Neither do I. However, I do not believe that was the purpose that the thread-opener had in mind when he started this thread. It sounds to me like he started this thread to warn people about the incredible dangers that cell phones can pose, both to the young and to the old. I keep hearing about this “plague” of holier-than-thou frummies, but I haven’t seen them around in anything near the numbers to warrant such a fear of them. Therefore, my conclusion is that alot of this “hate” is imagined/misinterpreted. Just because somebody is doing things differently than you does not mean he looks down on you. We have (or at least should have) the right to be machmir on ourselves without being accused of “hating”, “shunning”, or forming an “exclusive club”. Seriously, we’re not all that evil.
Health – “Aries – Your last paragraph is so true. (The one addressed to Dovy.) Unfortunately it’s getting worse. I just read that a certain yeshiva is now requiring other people to monitor internet usage in other people’s homes. There is no privacy anymore. Many people are looking to drive rifts between members of the klal -saying if you don’t conform -you aren’t frum. (And of course, you don’t belong in our yeshiva.)… The sinah from one shomer shabbos yid to another seems to be growing at an alaming rate!”
I highly doubt there are “many people” saying “if you don’t conform -you aren’t frum. (And of course, you don’t belong in our yeshiva.)” It is perfectly reasonable for a yeshiva to only want boys on a certain level of frumkeit in their yeshiva. And it is also perfectly reasonable for somebody to only want their children to be around one type of person, so that they will not learn hashkafos that they do not approve of. However, that does not necessarily mean that these people do not think that others are frum, or that they hate these others, as I explained above to aries.