The Amish in America have long lived off the grid, eschewing modern technologies such as cars and televisions. They are said to be concerned that such things could harm their way of life — with its strong emphasis on family and community — and distract them from their spiritual path. But, according to a recent story in The New York Times, smartphones and computers are now making some inroads into their world apart.
Just a week after news of a new iPhone made the front page of this newspaper and dominated screens around the country, it’s interesting to consider the Amish, who accept new technology with great caution. Amish folk who spoke to the Times (and would only give their first names because to give their full names would be sign of a lack of humility) think carefully about the advantages and drawbacks of new things. As more of them go beyond traditional farming into businesses and trades to make a living, computers can be a great help. But an Amish man named Levi, a woodworker, wasn’t sure about them. “If you can just look it up on the internet, you’re not thinking,” he said. “The more people rely on technology, the more we want to sit behind a desk. But you can’t build a house sitting behind a desk.”
Author Erik Wesner, an author who blogs about the Amish, said “Amish life is about recognizing the value of agreed-upon limits … and the spirit of the internet cuts against the idea of limits.’’ Technology can also let someone withdraw for a time, brief or otherwise, from the people around them. Said Wesner, “A cellphone and some earbuds are all it takes to place yourself in your own little world. … In some sense that is profoundly anti-Amish.”
Said an Amish woman named Lizzie, “People are treating those phones as if they are gods. 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.”
Secular society hasn’t sorted out these issues. The September issue of the Atlantic poses a sweeping question: “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of Generation Me and IGen, writes, “There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives — and making them seriously unhappy.” Teens are said to be dating less and working less, while deeply connected to social media. They have become homebodies, and “they are on their phone, in their room, alone and often distressed.”
Smartphones, computers and the internet are changing the world, but we’re still coming to grips with how they’re also changing us. The Amish may well manage to set limits, but what about the rest of society?