“In the late 1980s, young urban professionals Scott and Mary Ann Savage experienced an unexpected call. In the midst of a booming material culture, they were uneasy with their lengthy commutes, hurried lives, and impact on the environment. They began to long for a simpler way of life. A spiritual hunger grew as well, which caused them to read about the plain communities around them in Ohio.”

“I’m going on a technology fast…. I’m a little bit scared. There’s this fear that I’ll be disconnected and somehow some amazing thing will happen and I won’t know about it. And then, I don’t know, I won’t have any friends? I guess that’s my fear. It’s not that I don’t need friends, because of course I do, but friends are not who I am. My relationships cannot really address issues of loneliness and deep-seated questions of meaning.”

“The Amish have managed to keep technology in check, and in doing so they have fostered a sense of community that many of us yearn for in our electronically tethered and frenetically paced lives. It’s not that we are not connected—280 million Americans out of a population of 307 million have a cell phone, not to mention Facebook and Twitter accounts—but we still find ourselves inwardly yearning for that something the Amish seem to possess in their lack and which we lack in our possessing: the serenity, the quietness, the sense of knowing where one belongs in a defined community….”

“The Amish are not completely opposed to technology. But they want to ask technology questions. And the primary question they ask of technology is, if we adopt you, what impact will that have on our core values? I think we can learn from the Amish; they’re putting technology on probation.”

“The Quaker practice of corporate discernment can provide a crucial moderating force within the frequently polarized public debates about technology. On one side, champions of ‘accelerationism’ celebrate the benefits of technological advancement, emphasizing speed and innovation without sufficient regard for potential social or ethical consequences. On the other side, staunch opposition to technological change can highlight legitimate concern over displacement, dehumanization, or environmental harm, even as these arguments primarily serve to legitimize a diffuse and unexamined fear of change.” 

“For me, being a ‘whole person’ includes physical embodiment, emotional engagement and intimate relationships with family and friends, and in the physical place where I am. I therefore by definition cannot be a ‘whole person’ in social media. You only see a small (and to me relatively unimportant) part of the wholeness of body, place and relationships that is me. And in particular you only see the intellectual, rational, language-limited part of me…”

“For me, being a ‘whole person’ includes physical embodiment, emotional engagement and intimate relationships with family and friends, and in the physical place where I am. I therefore by definition cannot be a ‘whole person’ in social media. You only see a small (and to me relatively unimportant) part of the wholeness of body, place and relationships that is me. And in particular you only see the intellectual, rational, language-limited part of me…”

“We should face up to the fact that some of our old ways worked well for some people, but did not work well for others. Zoom has opened some new ways to include people, and enable more variety in how we do things. And we absolutely need to make sure we find ways that include people who don’t find Zoom works for them, too – there’s a balance.”

“Over Zoom, there is a new intimacy to the gatherings. Faces and expressions are on full display. ‘I really see that they are deep in worship,’ Joan Malin said of her fellow Brooklyn Friends. ‘There’s a vulnerability when someone is doing that, and here they are putting it onscreen for us to witness,’ she said. ‘It helps me get there, too.'”

“We can connect to God and other people regardless of how close we are or how much technology is between us. When we’re ready to connect with the Holy Spirit and… we enter into worship, knowing other people are worshiping at the same time matters.”

“Quaker worship is not exclusively an activity of the rational, disembodied mind (albeit it is easy to receive this impression in some meetings). Our physical presence is not irrelevant to our participation in communal worship. Worship is the response of our whole being to the presence of God – a response which involves our bodies and the physical presence of our fellow worshippers at least as much as our words and thoughts.”

“Quakerism allows us to remove ourselves from the cycle of quicker work: making more work for the sake of more work, with productivity as king. What I’ve learned working in a Quaker environment is the real power of reflection, of silence, of taking time to discern. I feel like when I do so, decisions are more thought-through, more grounded in reality, and more inclusive of the voices of others.”

“What ChatGPT can do is a marvel. We are at the dawn of a new technological era. But it is easy to see how it could turn dark — and quickly. A.I. systems like this make the production and manipulation of text (and code and images and eventually audio and video) functionally costless. They will be deployed to produce whatever makes us most likely to click. But these systems do not and cannot know what they are producing. The cost of creating and optimizing content that grabs our attention is plummeting, but the cost of producing valuable and truthful work isn’t. These are technologies that lend themselves to cacophony, not community. I fear a world in which the business models behind them run on our attention or profit off our anger. But other worlds and other models are possible….”

“It is a blessed thing to possess a cool, well-balanced, pure, healthy mind. But, it may well be asked, who does enjoy this noble possession? None, we may boldly affirm, by nature; for nature sends us perpetually streaming out on the surface of things, and wandering for the gratification of our senses by the way-side, where we are sure of being taken captive by every passing thought and thing.”