Rabbi Pinchas Taylor (Chabad-Plantation)

The Internet’s Impact on our Dreams

One of the most curious topics pondered since time immemorial and across all culture lines is the nature, purpose, and interpretation of dreams. The average person spends twenty-five years of his life sleeping, six years of which are spent dreaming. The meanings of dreams have been explored since time immemorial. They have been examined philosophically, psychologically, neurologically, and spiritually by many faith traditions. They have creative value, precognitive possibilities, and can even shed light on areas of needed self-development.

Dreams can on rare occasions be a conduit to channeling the spiritual worlds or serve as a means of reprocessing mundane events of the day. The internet and modern technology have bombarded us with constant stimuli in a way unfathomable by previous generations. The mundane events of our day are no longer confined to people and situations that we have physically interacted with, but instead, are also open to the numerous articles, pictures, and videos that we have been bombarded with throughout the day.

This discussion seeks to explore an overview of secular discussion on dreams, and the spectrum of how dreams have been discussed throughout Torah literature. Through grasping the foundations of dream significance, it will become evident the outcomes that the internet and social media age has had on the quality of our dreams.