I always assumed it was a cultural difference. It's very difficult to celebrate your members who go to remote corners of the country and globe, which necessities technology to stay connected to family, friends, community members you're working with, and like minded individuals; for Jewish education and content for the children; for fundraising; and for navigating the foreign environment which one lives in; while simultaneously pushing an anti technology campaign.
If Shlichus necessitates technology like smartphones, how did the Shluchim do their work in the '50s -'90s? The Rebbe's approach to technology was to use it for good, from the early days of shiurim on the radio and broadcasting farbrengens on Cable TV to Chabad pioneering use of the internet long before it was even close to being mainstream. But using technology for Shlichus doesn't necessitate or encourage personal use. No one was under any illusions that having cable tV was ok because the Rebbe's farbrengens were broadcast on it.
In addition, Chabad doesn't promote insulating oneself from the outside world the way other chassisim and yeshiva communities do. On the contrary, they support entering and engaging with the world in the public and secular sphere to have a positive effect, both on the Jews the encounter to be mekarev and have do mitzvos, and the non Jews they can positively influence.
This is correct, IMHO.
In everything in life, when you have to make a choice of try conflicting goals, it's going to come down to a matter of prioritization. I assumed Chabad made a conscious choice to prioritize the shlichus, kiruv, and public engagement model over the insularity model. Like everything in life, that comes with costs.
This is incorrect, IMHO. I do not believe the Rebbe ever viewed them as conflicting goals at all. The Rebbe's mission statement from the beginning of his nesius was you cannot have one without the other. If your avodas Hashem is going to be done to its fullest, it cannot be without helping others at the same time:
At no stage did the Rebbe ever even hint at lowering personal standards, caving to modernity, or "sacrificing" for the purposes of Shlichus.
Disclaimer: IANAL (I am not a Lubavitcher).
I'll let ExGingi correct this one, but I'll use this to add my own disclaimer, even though it is self-understood: I am a Lubavitcher, but these posts are my opinions reflecting my understanding and are not in any way "Lubavitch policy" or ideology.
In most chassidishe communities it was the strng stand taken by the Rebbe against smartphones that led to this result. In Yeshivishe corcles it was the strong stand taken by R Mattisyahu Solomon who was very literally moser nefesh over it and a number of roshei yeshiva that led to this result. Does the Lubavitch community currently (or within the last 20 years) have anyone with enough authority to implement such a thing?
Again, Chabad's approach, i.e. the Rebbe's approach, was not to ban things or kick people out of mosdos. The Rebbe spoke out against people having TVs (I don't know how much, if very much at all), but to my knowledge, the Rebbe did not instruct hanhala to kick out a bochur because they watched TV or because the family had a TV.
