From the Fence to the Switch: Configuring Communication Systems for Sanctuary
The MIT Press eBooks · 2022
Members of today's Amish communities are active participants in the global economy.They travel for work and pleasure-often via train and hired vans and buses (Meek 2012).They communicate frequently via digital technologies to maintain connections with relatives and work colleagues who live far away.Increasingly, the Amish are dependent on outsiders to acquire the resources that they need to survive.They are different from others, though, in that they care a great deal about the nature of their connection to the outside world.As a result, over time, the Amish have developed sophisticated ways to regulate the communication channels connecting their local communities to everyone else in an effort to hold powerful ideological and cultural forces at bay-especially those that they believe could disrupt their strong, locally focused communities and simple way of life.Adapting to economic changes has pushed Amish families to adopt many new technologies in recent years.Which technologies and how they are adopted, however, is not yet well understood outside Amish communities themselves.Generally a conservative religious group known for adhering to old-fashioned lifestyles, the Amish do not take a hard line against all new technologies, as some may think.The Amish do generally reject electricity supplied via the public power grid, as well as television, radio, automobiles, and modern clothing fashions.Among the diverse population of American Amish today, however, it is not uncommon to see people rollerblading, families enjoying time on the lake in a motorboat, construction workers using power tools, homes with solar panels on the roof, businesses with websites and Facebook pages, and individuals using cell phones to talk and send text messages.Some may view these behaviors as hypocritical or haphazard.This book, however, suggests an alternative: that these decisions are highly context dependent and often the result of calculated, communal negotiations intended to dodge the stress and anxiety associated with modern life while remaining competitive in the marketplace.