Amish*

I've been reading about the Amish. 

They're not Luddites, as people often assume. They don't reject technology blindly. Instead, they evaluate each new tool by asking: what will this do to our community?

When the telephone arrived, they didn't immediately say no. They watched. They noticed that neighbors stopped visiting each other as often. That something was lost. So they decided: phones are allowed, but not in the home. There are phone booths at the edge of town for emergencies and business. 

When electricity came, they saw how it would connect them to the outside world. How it would bring in radio, then television, then everything else. So they said no. Not to electricity itself, but to the grid. Some communities use generators and batteries for specific purposes. 

I find this fascinating. It's not about purity. It's about intentionality. 

What would it look like to apply this to my life? To our society?

We adopt technologies faster than we can understand them. We assume new is better. We let the market decide. 

The Amish ask: does this bring us closer together, or push us apart?

I don't want to be Amish. But I want to learn to ask that question. 

What has the internet done to our community? What have smartphones done?

It's not too late to choose <3

*future me