The great Gadol, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, who recently passed away, wrote a beautiful sefer on Middot called Orchot Yosher (Artscroll actually has a Hebrew/English translation of it). A part of it was quoted by Rabbi Avraham Schorr at one of the hespedim for Rav Chaim, and it has a bitachon/technology connection.
Rav Chaim z’l asks why we call fear of sin “fear of sin,” when it’s actually more like fear of punishment.
He explains that sin and punishment are not two separate entities. It’s not like a sin is going through a traffic light, for which you will then end up getting a ticket in the mail.
When a person eats unkosher, that is the punishment. In his words, the nature (of sin) acts upon our bodies like a lethal poison. The sins themselves damage, rip apart, and consume the body and soul.
He says that this is built into the laws of nature. Sins are a consuming fire, no different than the venom of a serpent or scorpion, regardless of a person’s lack of intention. This is a powerful point, to understand what sin really means.
If we really viewed sin that way, we would obviously be more afraid of sinning.
He quotes his father, the Steipler, who wrote in his sefer that desecrating Shabbat is compared to a cancer, may Hashem protect us.
If someone was aware that performing a certain activity, or eating a certain food, increased his risk of developing cancer, God forbid, surely he would flee from that food or activity with all his strength.
And he would be terrified of failing to avoid these dangers.
That is what, “fear of sin,” means.
He tells a story about when the Gaon of Vilna was young and accidentally touched something Muskeh on Shabbat. He instantly fainted.
That’s how severe it was for him.
And this is where Emunah and Bitachon come in-
The extent to which a person is afraid of sin reveals his strength of faith and fear of heaven.
If a person’s fear of sin is not complete, it demonstrates that his faith is incomplete.
When a person really believes, then he understands that sin is real.
And the more concerned he is about sin, the more it shows that it is truly real to him.
That is what Yirat Het/ Fear of sin is.
Rabbi Schorr went on to say that of course, we all agree that there are dangers in technology. And we all agree that there all levels of distance we have to keep.
The more afraid we are of sin, the more precautions we will take.
It reminds me of when someone once put cyanide in a few Tylenol bottles, and many people died. It caused Tylenol to recall millions of bottles of pills, and it caused them create a new standard of sealing the top of the bottles.
Before that, they was no seal, just like there weren’t always x-ray machines at the airport. Those of us who are old enough can remember that there was no security. We used to be able to go right up to the plane.
As things happen, new security measures are put into place.
And today, no one would take a pill if the seal was tampered it.
But if we analyze the Tylenol tampering incident, and studied how many bottles were actually poisoned, what are the odds that something would happen? However, since it’s poison, we don’t take chances.
Some people have child safety locks in their kitchens, and on their car doors. But how many children have actually opened the car door and fallen out? It is a rarity, but we don’t want to take chances. It’s a fear.
Well, more children have fallen out from improper use of cell phones, then from open car doors.
The point is, if we look with our Emunah and Bitachon eyes and really believe in the severity of sin, we would be more careful when we come to the pitfalls.
The higher level your filter (or the decision not to have a smart phone at all( is just an indication of the your level of concern.
Be consistent.
Some people don’t lock their doors at night, but if you lock your doors with ten locks, and then when it comes to technology, everything is open, that’s a question.
Have a wonderful day.