EL336: WM Reingold
I absolutely loved this reading. I enjoyed Reingold's casual, yet immensely informative writing style. For this agenda item, I'm going to do things a little differently. I always write my thoughts or jot down notes in the margins of my books when I'm reading. I'm going to copy those thoughts into my blog for this selection. Observe the big gaps in pages or paragraphs-- I tended to write much more in the beginning of the reading, before I started doing so more intensely as I became more interested and thirsty for further explanation. I found myself quite angry with the Amish while reading this...
From Look Who's Talking by Howard Rheingold as published in Writing Materials by Tribble and Trubek:
Page 379, paragraph 1: "Technology is my native tongue. I'm online six hours a day."
Hah! As am I, some days even longer. Yesterday I estimated at least 2.5 hours were dedicated to e-mailing alone.
Page 381, paragraph 1: "'It's not just how you use the technology that concerns us [Amish]. We're also concerned about what kind of person you become when you use it.'"
I can see their point here. My boyfriend is constantly yelling at me because when he comes to visit I'm often on the computer. Heaven help me if I send more than one text to a friend while he's there, which I usually do, or I'll never hear the end of it. Jokingly of course, but I know it's rude yet I can't tear myself away from technology for longer than a few hours at a time without becoming restless. As soon as I get home at night from school and/or work I drop my bags and swish my mouse around to wake my precious Dell.
Page 381, paragraph 1: "Calling attention to oneself, or being 'prideful,' is one of the cardinal Amish worries."
Just sounds to me like the didn't want any fun or excitement permitted.
Page 381, paragraph 3: "Several men and young boys in identical black trousers, suspenders, and straw hats were operating horse-drawn equipment in the fields beyond."
Almost like slavery, who would voluntarily choose to live this way in this era?
Page 381, paragraph 5: "...primarily to the "English" (the Amish term for non-Amish)..."
It seems strange Amish would even stay in this country where their kind are clearly outnumbered, not widely known about, and are generally looked upon as outsiders and even strange for their lack of technological use. They don't even call their fellow countrymen Americans, personally it's almost belittling for some reason. Why would they want to continue living here?
Page 382, iine 1: "The price of good farmland and the number of Amish families are both increasing so rapidly that in recent decades they have adopted nonagricultural enterprises for livelihood--woodworking, construction, light factory work."
What, like an Amish industrial revolution of sorts? How will they continue to support themselves when technology becomes even more advanced? The majority of the population relies on technology to survive on a daily basis. Technology's where the money is, or so I'm told. We live in a survival of the fittest society, and frankly I don't feel the Amish can win that battle with their current lifestyle. On the other hand, I guess the whole Amish belief is surrounded by refutation of practicing "keeping up with the Jones'." in today's society this practice demands embracing technology.
Page 382, paragraph 2: "'Connecting to the electric lines would make too many things too easy. Pretty soon, people would start plugging in radios and televisions, and that's like a hot line to the modern world.'" -Amos, and Amish craftsman.
You're living in the modern world!
Page 382, paragraph 3: "They [Amish] started out as radical religious libertarians..."
In no way would I ever associate the word Amish with the words radical and libertarian. They say the Bible teaches them not to conform, yet they are, to one another! In an extreme sense, I think.
As I read on, I began to understand that the Amish are mostly concerned with family, and togetherness. I agree that incorporating technology as heavily as most of us do into our daily lives causes social separation. When I was younger I had limits on the time I could spend on the computer. Although I still think some of their beliefs about technology are hypocritical.
My reading of the Amish is that the central question they ask about technology -- does it bring us together or pull us apart -- is really directed to their core family unit. They don't want to be interrupted during their family meals any more than they would welcome an Amish neighbor wanting to ask them about borrowing a tool. So their definition if "community" is different. I have a community through the weblogs I read, just as most college students have online social networking accounts. But the Amish would say that time spent on such activities is time taken away from time that would be better spent on the family unit.
I'm puzzled when I see horses drawing a gasoline engine out into a field -- but the Amish are very careful about deliberately drawing the line at the tractor. But I think there's a difference between hypocrisy and simply having a mindset that I don't share.
Theologically, the Amish were very liberal, in that they argued for very little central authority in their religious government. This was very different from the battles that were going in Europe between Catholics and Protestants. In an age where there was no such thing as the separation of church and state, so that every religious battle was also a political one... the Amish simply opted out of all that. It was a daring stance to take.