The phone itself isn’t wrong
“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….
[Said one young Amish woman,] ‘The phone itself isn’t wrong. It’s about keeping with simplicity. Without a phone, there’s more quietness. Once you jump to one thing, you then jump to another. You never stop. So before something new is accepted, we think about it for a while.'”
— Kevin D. Miller, 2011
Professor and theologian
Today’s Invitation
Treasure community where you have it and seek the community that you lack.
This Week’s Query
How do you create positive boundaries for yourself around screens?
When have you “opted out” of a new technology that you felt detracted from your life? What was the outcome?
Read the source of today’s quote
