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  • In Amish Country, the Future Is Calling
    (Sept 2017)

    “A cellphone and some earbuds are all it takes to place yourself in your own world, isolated from the rest of society,” Mr. Wesner said. “In some sense that is profoundly anti-Amish.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/business/amish-technology.html

    The Amish have not given up on horse-drawn buggies. Their rigid abstinence from many kinds of technology has left parts of their lifestyle frozen since the 19th century: no cars, TVs or connections to electric utilities, for example.

    But computers and cellphones are making their way into some Amish communities, pushing them — sometimes willingly, often not — into the 21st century.

    [...]

    But for people bound by a separation from much of the outside world, new tech devices have brought fears about the consequence of internet access. There are worries about pornography; about whether social networks will lead sons and daughters to date non-Amish friends; and about connecting to a world of seemingly limitless possibilities.

    [...]

    John, the woodworker at Amish Country Gazebos, spends part of his time operating the computer-guided saw, which would look at home in any modern cabinetry shop. His mastery of the machine, at 68, can be a source of teasing at home.

    We call him the computer geek sometimes,” said his son, Junior, laughing as the family sat down to supper.

    [...]

    Lizzie said she was upset by how people had become so attached to their phones.
    “People are treating those phones like they are gods,” she said. “They’re bowing down to it at the table, bowing down to it when they’re walking. Here we say we don’t bow down to idols, and that’s getting dangerously close, I think.”

    #Amish