Trying to be a little more Amish
18 questions to ask yourself before adopting a new piece of technology
My first exposure to the Amish was from Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise,” a parody of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The lyrics and music video flipped every possible switch that my nine-year-old sense of humor had. I can still rap the whole song by heart. Don’t care what my wife thinks because “my homies agree, I really look good in black.”
Like most people, I’ve always thought the Amish were as Weird Al describes them. Technologically Impaired. It’s easy to notice their lack of phones and cars and other modern technology and assume that they reject technology altogether.
But this isn’t true. The Amish have a very intuitive, albeit rigid, set of values about adopting new technology. They are far more nuanced than we give them credit for and far more progressive and intentional than most of us.
When an Amish person wants to adopt a new technology, they present their desire and reasons to the community elders. The elders typically allow it to observe how it effects this person’s life and their role within the community. After a period of observation, the elders determine if that piece of technology has a pro or anti-social effect. If they deem that it will strengthen their community, others are allowed to adopt it.
Today, many Amish has cell phones, but not smart phones or social media accounts.
The Amish understand that the technology we create ends up shaping us in return. With each new development, we shape our behaviors, expectations, understanding of other people, and our entire worldview around the new capabilities and connectivity that the new tech allows. This is often great for us. But I don’t need to list the anti-social, anti-health, and anti-focus side effects that from modern technology. You feel them as much as I do.
I wish I would have learned the Amish way of evaluating new tech before I ever bought a smartphone, signed up for social media, or even created a Google account. It’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube and roll back the clocks to a time I consider “peak tech” - those glorious years around 2008 to 2012 when we had most of the incredible connectivity that we have today but I had distinct devices for different uses. A flip phone for calls and texts. An offline iPod for music, podcasts, and audiobooks but that required I intentionally load it. A laptop for everything else.
It’s not that technology companies are evil. Maybe a few have cross a few evil lines but, largely speaking, tech companies have a rose-colored optimism that technology always improves human life. By some combination of naivety, hubris, or cognitive dissonance, they fail to see the potential downside that new their innovations might bring. It’s up to us to set our rules, boundaries, and values.
Turns out, there are plenty of non-Amish thinkers to inspire a more intentional relationship with technology. No tech is without it’s trade-offs. The key is determining whether the juice is worth the bitter aftertaste or the blood sugar spike.
I’ve compiled a set of questions to decide whether or not to adopt a new technology. This list is mostly collected from L.M. Sacasas, Neil Postman, and Wendell Berry (more on them at the bottom) with a few of my own as well.
To Tech or Not to Tech?
Questions to ask myself to determine if a new technology will be a net-positive for me.
What habits will the use of this technology instill?
How will the use of this technology affect my experience of time? Of place?
How will the use of this technology affect how I relate to other people and the world around me?
What practices will the use of this technology cultivate?
What practices will it discourage or replace?
What human capacities might I lose by adopting and relying on this technology?
What might this technology encourage me to see more of? What might it cause me to ignore or miss?
What is the problem that this technology claims to solve? Do I have that problem? Can I solve it another way?
What new problems will this technology create?
What changes in language are being promoted?
What alternative media might arise from this technology?
Does this technology help me do work what is clearly and demonstrably better than the technology it replaces?
Does the design of this technology encourage me to screw around with features and settings more than using it for good? (For me, this is especially for productivity and note-taking software)
How future-proof is this technology?
How secure and private is this technology?
Will adopting this technology be a net disruption or a net support to my current family and community relationships?
What is the potential for this to become a new form of escape or distraction?
How easy will it be for me to give up if I later determine it’s not right for me? In terms of: dependency, money, privacy.
I call this framework Optimistic Skepticism. I hold a mostly optimistic view of new technology. I believe in the potential for technology to lift people out of poverty, allow human creativity to flourish, and many of the other Pollyanic views of modern technology. But I’m not a full techno-optimist. I am also skeptical.
The modern technology landscape is a field of ever-present temptations to lose focus or lose bits of myself. I don’t want to be required to deploy near-monastic levels of willpower and self-control each time I open my laptop or pull out my phone. These questions are about shaping my physical and digital environment to best suit the work that I want to do.
I hope they help you do the same. I would love to hear any questions you ask yourself or rules that you have in place to help you keep a healthy relationship with technology.
The above list of questions are inspired by:
- ’s The Question’s Concerning Technology
Neil Postman’s lecture, “The Surrender of Culture to Technology”
Wendell Berry’s Why I’m Not Going to Buy a Computer
- ’s Questions for Technology
Ummm... brilliant advice and list of questions! I gotta say, every time my tech doesn't sync the way it was promised to sync and I spend my time (often hours) re-entering passwords, re-starting, and just general IT voodoo, my go-to saying is 'maybe the Amish had a point'. For me it's a metaphor in minimizing or just eschewing tech altogether, but the way the actual Amish actually do the adoption (something I didn't know until your essay) is a much better way forward. Thank you!