Mar
Technology Crunch
I do not carry a cell phone, and am not too experienced in their use. To me, it seems a waste. I do not like the idea of having phone conversations in the middle of my other activities. I am not that important that anyone has to contact me immediately at any hour of the day.
I do not have an I-Pod or a blackberry or whatever those things are. My concessions to technology are the compute and cable. All these other things seem more like encumbrances. How much are they needed. Must we be accessible at all hours, even if these interruptions would be inconvenient? Do we need to carry our whole day’s agenda on an electronic file cabinet? Is this electronic age liberating us or burdening us?
It takes time for technology to find its place. The computer is an example. When desktop computers became affordable, they ushered in a new “cyber world”. Folks got so involved in the computer that there was little else for the everyday world. Hobbies declined among children, who preferred computer games and such. The computer was still a novelty. It took a while before it became something less, and more. Today, the computer is viewed more like an appliance than a phenomenon all to itself.
Hobbies are coming back, since children have learned that the cyber world has its limits. In time, cell phones and other devices will also be less prominent. I foresee a number of people who will forego such “conveniences” so as not to be burdened by them. Once we get used to technology, it settles into its place and becomes less prominent.
Well, I know the Amish get their share of critique — some of it well-deserved — but my understanding from reading is that each Amish community takes the time to evaluate technology to see how it fits into the total order of life before it is approved. The standards may be similar across different communities, but each community as such decides them. My understanding is that it is expected that the young, who are often in their more rebellious phase, will experiment with new technologies, and then the rest of the folk watch to see what happens, to see how community life is affected. I do think there is a notion that novelties take time to grow into the community. (Now it may be that from the perspective of the rest of us that the Amish perhaps take too long for our liking! But be that as it may, they have the right to their difference.)
Many Amish communities allow telephones, but only away from the house in a barn. They don’t want telephones to interfere with real life communications and visiting, but it is there — placed in an inconvenient place — so it may be deliberate rather than habitual and impositional.
I’m not ready any time soon to go off and join an Amish community, but the fact of the matter is that however Anabaptist (and therefore Radical Protestant) they may be, they do come from a Germanic background, and so perhaps some of the old folkways — however exaggerated here — may still be living.
Our ancestors weren’t phobic to new crafts, but I do think it’s true that in general, things take time to find their place.
In a sense, new things are like immigrants : time is needed for assimilation and for everyone to readjust and for the immigrants to find their way into the community.
March 29th, 2008 at 4:35 am