Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Amish Online

Amish Online

This goes to the question about who doesn’t use phones (Amish) and if they listen to Buzz Out Loud (sorry, no). I live near a couple of good sized Amish communities and as a former minister have a good grasp of their beliefs. They don’t use phones for a variety of reasons, but primarily because of their beliefs that they are not to be like the world. This is why they live separate from “The English” and dress differently (and use a different language among themselves). To listen to a podcast would be like watching TV, something that is verboten.

However, several years ago when I was working at an Internet help desk I got a call from a subscriber who was having problems connecting from a hotel (old dial up days). As I started to probe for problems I found that the hotel was in our local calling area, and his home address was a few miles farther. I asked why he was calling from the hotel instead of and said that he didn’t have a phone, but needed to log on to the Internet. When I asked why he didn’t have a phone explained that he was Amish and that he wasn’t allowed to own a phone. Sure, that made sense (if you were Amish). So I asked why he was on the net and he explained that he made harnesses and took orders from the net (via e-mail). I looked at the web page, and it was as I would have suspected very plain (just straight text). The hotel where he logged on gouged him for the full day’s rate, he usually only logged on for about 30 minutes (2 hour buggy ride to hotel, 2 hours home).

Before you ask, the computer was a laptop, it was charged with solar.

Thought I would share.

Rick in Mammoth Cave
TheDigitalLife.net