THE late Steve Jobs helped create a selfish ''i, i, i'' consumer culture, which has only brought unhappiness, Britain's Chief Rabbi has claimed.

Lord Jonathan Sacks said advertising only made shoppers aware of what they did not own rather than feeling grateful for what they had.

He insisted a culture in which people cared solely about themselves and their possessions could not last long, and only faith and spending time with family could bring true happiness. The Chief Rabbi's comments are likely to raise eyebrows because he singled out Jobs.. for blame by likening his iPad tablet computers to the tablets of stone bearing the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses.

Speaking at an inter-faith reception attended by the Queen, Lord Sacks said: ''People are looking for values other than the values of a consumer society. The values of a consumer society really aren't ones you can live by for terribly long.

''The consumer society was laid down by the late Steve Jobs coming down the mountain with two tablets, iPad 1 and iPad 2, and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i, i, i.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/tec ... z1eIqySkMh

I am a 29 year old who feels that all the technology has a downfall. I believe that it hasn't helped my spelling (with simple spell check to correct things), and it leads me to feel the impulse to go to a bookstore and buy a book. There is just something about the feel of a book and the feel of paging through it. I wouldn't buy the book reader because I would much rather have the physical book.

Yay!

GKC

It's not an 'either/or', the fact that you have an e-reader doesn't mean you can never read a physical book again, any more than buying a TV means you can never listen to the radio again, or buying a car means you can never ride a horse again, or buying a gun means you never use a knife again ....etc etc etc

Yay!

We no longer have our horses, though.

GKC

Agreed, i was a tech for 5 years, when i started out in the workforce.
When all the service manuals went from paper to pdf, i couldn't stand it.(i worked in IT btw)

Lots of people own horses....including members of my own family....granted, it's more of a rural thing, you won't find horses these days in urban areas, no room for them...on the other hand, cities no longer have to deal with the problem of what to do with all the horse droppings filling up the streets....which I think is good...and horse racing is still popular.

True.

But I meant that my family no longer owns horses. Since I was in college, more or less. So though I have a car, I don't have a horse. I do have a radio and a TV, a gun and a knife.

And books.

GKC

My e-reader has allowed me to read many books I probably wouldn't have, not for lack of desire, but for lack of funds.

For me the issue is access and availability....I used to check a couple of stores here and there for the title, and if I couldn't find it I gave up....granted if it was something I was really interested in I would look online, but if it was something I only kinda sorted wanted to read I gave up if I couldn't find it easily, now I check for the ebook and if I find it I download it.....so I can easily get a copy of tons of books that before would have required lots of research....

Historically I would have ordered from Amazon -- sometimes I tried to read public domain texts on my computer, but that can be wearying. So far I've probably read 20+ books that I would not have if not for being able to get them for free or at a greatly reduced price.