The Amish and Technology

Giving new meaning to the term? From the Lagrange County IN Amish settlement. More on the Amish phone.

Continue reading Dialing long distance

I recently heard that a number of Amish in the Lancaster County community have begun using regular electric washers (like any English home might have, except powered by the diesel generator). With the widely-used wringer washers (ie, the old Maytag style), the clothes are still pretty wet when you finish.  Using a regular washer, the [...]

Continue reading Amish and electric washers

The Young Center at Elizabethtown College has announced a new conference on Amish Technology, to be held June 5-8, 2013. They have also put out a call for papers, with a proposal submission deadline of October 1, 2012. From the description: This international conference will highlight the challenges of new technology (Internet, telecommunications, production, manufacturing, household [...]

Continue reading Amish tech conference & call for papers – Plus my all-time favorite Amish invention

This photo was taken in the New Wilmington PA Amish settlement. I’ve mentioned before how I’m no big fan of cell phones.  That said, they sure are handy to have on hand when you actually need to talk to someone. The pay phone is one of those things, like the roadside diner and the family [...]

Continue reading When was the last time you used a pay phone?

Continuing our “Signs of an Amish Home” series, let’s have a look at milk cans.  Milk cans seem to be another one of those quintessential symbols of the Amish–who else uses them nowadays? A few other Plain groups perhaps, but not many others.  If you see them stacked up by the road or by the [...]

Continue reading Amish milk cans

That was the question asked in this thought-provoking video I watched over the weekend. The tone of the narrator is a little too “kindergarten teacher” for me, and don’t watch if you don’t want to see people in beach-style attire in a few places. But it makes a pretty interesting point.  Compared to our predecessors, [...]

Continue reading Would you give up the internet for $1 million?

If you dig around enough on Facebook, you’ll come across profiles of adolescents with Amish names and profile pics taken in Plain clothing.   These were the catalyst for an interesting piece–”Amish youth hitchin’ up to Facebook“–in yesterday’s Lancaster Sunday News. As the article makes clear, Amish youth+Facebook is far from a universal phenomenon.  I [...]

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Amish housewives have quite the workload.  They do get some help in managing the household, though.  Amish homes often feature modified appliances, built to run on power sources other than public electricity. Depending on what is allowed in a given church, you might see an air-powered mixer, or gas-powered refrigerator.  Wringer-style washing machines are common. [...]

Continue reading Amish housewives’ helpers

I resisted Facebook for a good while, but finally got a profile back in 2009.  Since then, I’ve often thought about the above question. What got me pondering this today, though, was an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (“Amish learn value of networking“).   Amish are using social networking to market their products, with the [...]

Continue reading Has Facebook made your life better?

Nadege Armour asked in a comment yesterday:  Any chance we might be able to see the inside of an anonymous Amish home? Well, here we have a photo of the inside of an Amish home near Clymer, New York, shared by Amish researcher Karen Johnson-Weiner: First off, you can see one of the most important [...]

Continue reading Inside an Amish Home: The Living Room