Nominated for Best Picture and other Oscars, the
movie “The Social Network” was an intriguing
interpretation, and a great film, about the founder
and beginning of Facebook. How the internet and
social interactions will be transformed is ongoing
and evolving. We can now share information
with friends and family, everything from photos
to the instant communication of a text or mass
communication via tweets.
The number of hours we spend in front of a
screen at home and at work on a daily basis is
staggering. Those of us in the tourism industry
have always enjoyed the face-to-face interaction
of meeting and talking to people. Watching for
facial reactions and getting the nuances of speech
are more easily interpreted
and more comprehensive
than a chat on Skype.
Smelling cookies at a bakery
or feeling the moist nose of a
cow are experiences still not
duplicated by a computer,
even via your avatar.
Most of this talk of the social
network and Facebook is
foreign to the Amish, except
for some teenagers. But
the Amish certainly have
a “social network” of their
own. Much of this is face-to-face communication, be it with family and
relatives, to others in the church district and
community. When the Amish go for a visit to a
friend’s home, the verb “visit” actually seems to
mean sitting and chatting. There is no playing
cards or watching a movie.
Almost any gathering of Amish involves catching
up, such as before and after church where men
and women, usually in separate groups, sit and
talk. Young people get together for hymn sings
and sometimes games of baseball or volleyball.
Weddings are a huge gathering of friends and
extended family. Activities from quilting bees to
filling silo can also be times of social interaction.
While none of these situations, from work to
school to social gatherings, is unique to the
Amish, their frequency and integration is. This
forms a close knit community, where neighbors
actually know each other. The importance of
face-to-face communication remains. From weddings to funerals, the Amish usually travel
around advising those in the community of the
event. Even the use of phones is limited, as they
remain outside of the house, except for those
pesky cell phones, an issue with which the
Amish are still grappling.
For some of us non-Amish, this inability to
communicate instantly with the Amish may
seem frustrating. We may be forced to leave
a message, send a letter, or actually go to see
the person. To us, it seems so much more could
be accomplished with instant communication,
email, the car, etc. But some Amish observe us
using all of this technology and see us as more
stressed out as we busily try to accomplish
everything we think we
need to do. Not having all
of this technology actually
forces a different way of
living and communicating
for the Amish.
But the Amish, especially
those in business, do need
to try and keep up with the
times to stay competitive.
For some time, many local
Amish have had websites
maintained by outsiders.
Amish businesses may have
a fax machine, and maybe
even a computer. It is normally stripped of most
programs and is used mainly for producing
documents, records, accounting, and not for
accessing the internet, watching movies, or
playing video games. But what about email?
Recently, I came across an advertisement for
a service provided by a non-Amish company.
They receive email questions and orders on
behalf of the Amish business. They then convert
the email into a fax, and send it to the Amish
business. There an answer is prepared and faxed
back. And then the service turns it into an email
and sends it back to the customer!
As the world evolves, we (and the Amish)
will need to decide how to adapt, expand, or
limit the impact and consequences of new
technologies, both on our values and our lives,
not to mention how we interact and exchange
information with others. Care to be a fan of
mine on Facebook?