On Social Media and the Amish

I recently became Facebook friends with an intriguing cat named Rumble-Bumble. Tonight he’s hosting the Quick Fire Blog Challenge, in which the participants must fire off a blog post in an hour from the topic he has provided.

Tonight’s topic: social media and Amish people. Here we go.

 

Clearly, we’ve got a little bit of cognitive dissonance going on. Social media is for the technologically proficient. The Amish are technologically deficient.

For those unaware, the Amish are a religious sect living in rural areas, including Pennsylvania and Ohio. They are an insular people, preferring to keep to themselves and within their congregations. They do not use computers, televisions, or even phones. They are self-sustaining, growing their own food and building their own houses. They are obviously not people who would use social media.

But would social media usage really be that bad for them? Teenagers go through a rite of passage called rumspringa. During this period, they are encouraged to explore the English world (as they call modern society) so that they fully understand what they will sacrifice when they commit full-time to the church as adults. Some teenagers stay in the community for a future of marriage, child rearing, and the trappings of an agrarian lifestyle. Others, after having a taste of freedom, want more.

It would be an easy assumption to say that Amish teenagers who use social media would be more likely to leave the church after rumspringa. However, “Amish America” suggests that Facebook usage might not be the worst thing for them. It would, depending on how they configure their privacy settings, allow them to connect with other Amish teenagers and share their rumspringa experiences. Parents concerned with their children’s interest in Facebook could monitor the accounts, and/or have access to them. Some communities, seeing the need of a telephone for emergencies, have installed “community phones” for families to share. Another option would be for them to install a community computer, which could monitor keystrokes and have stringent Internet filters.

In addition, some Amish could use sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote their businesses. Some families offer tours of their farms. They could use a YouTube  or Facebook account to preview their tours, a la the fictional Schrute Farms on TripAdvisor.

Most of us are familiar with the concerns of privacy and inappropriate postings on social media sites. The Amish are not immune to the pitfalls of social media and modern technology: in June, an Amish man in Indiana was arrested for sexting a minor.

Let’s not write off the Amish as social media users just yet. If my mom can Facebook, so can they. 

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