Technology was the topic that was chosen for my class and me for a base of discussion throughout the course. We looked at different views on technology and different aspects such as how technology fits in the world, how and if people depend on it, and if technology controls us or if we control it. In class reading the texts Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, it showed us how technology can go wrong if placed in the wrong hands and if technology is to advance for the human mind. In The Human Factor by Kim Vicente it explains how the human factor comes into play when technology gets to powerful such as Vicente states, “More and more, we’re being asked to live with technology that is technically reliable, because it was created to fit out knowledge of the physical world, but that is so complex or so counterintuitive that it’s actually unusable by most human beings” (17). In Technology Matters by David Nye, it gave us different situations with technology in that do we really know what technology is and how can we control it without it overpowering us. With reading these texts and the discussions in class I always went back to the question can people survive without technology? If the power goes out around the world, will people know how to survive? Or is technology apart of our life so much that everyone will be clueless. Seeing as that question is very broad I decided to narrow it down to the culture that does live without technology, the Amish.
Every year I have a family reunion in Tomah, WI on a farm in the middle of no where. Down the road lived an Amish family and we would always see them on their horse and buggy or when we drive past their house there would be hard at work in the field. I always found them interesting because growing up in my generation, technology was always around and I never understood how people could or would live with out it. Every year I always wondered how exactly they lived and why they choose to live that way. One year my aunt asked us if we wanted to go down and meet Rufus and his family. I felt like I was in a totally different world. A world with no electricity or cars and I just didn’t know how it could be done. They worked so hard for their living and appreciated doing it without help from high-tech technology. Going back to my question at the beginning of the course of can people live without technology, throughout this research on the Amish it showed that it can be done and it may in fact be easier to live without the complications of technology and risk of human error such as Nye states “the greater the power of systems, the more serious is potential failure” (167). The Amish help show that the simple way of live may in fact be more beneficial.
While researching the Amish and their culture I was only looking up things dealing with the Amish. Their religion, values, why they believe in the things they do, I thought that would be enough for my paper. In conferences and discussions I realized I needed to look deeper into my research. I discussed in my paper about how more people are turning to organic way of life so I had to look up why people are turning to this way of life and how it affects the Amish and also other stakeholders such as regular grocery stores or farmers. It wasn’t easy finding quality research that was good enough to be used. Looking for scholarly information is not as easy and sometimes became a challenge. Going to the library and getting a class on how to look up well researched information came in hand with these challenges and I was able to find the well balanced information that I was looking for. Along with researching, there was the challenge of citing my sources correctly. Citing sources is very important and if I don’t cite a source that I should have I could be charged with plagiarism. In the beginning of this course I had an idea about when to cite sources in a paper, such as after using a direct quote. After discussions in class and looking over previous students work I learned that I have to put the page number after every sentence that had information I got from elsewhere. That didn’t take me a while to get used to, but making sure I cite right was something I always made sure I did with looking at the English Writing Intensive book for reference.
In writing about the texts in class about how the different authors portrayed technology and how it affects our every day life, either in a good way or bad helped me write my final essay. Having the ability to go back and look at how I analyzed my first essay to my last gave me a view on how I grew as a writer and being able to notice my mistakes and how I fixed them throughout the course. Writing in out blogs every week which focus on our opinion about a certain topic and with having an interest in the Amish culture helped me be able to incorporate my opinion in my paper which I feel is an important aspect because the audience would like to know your feelings on the certain topic you are discussing, which also helps them conclude their view on the situation. Looking back through out the process of writing this paper I had many questions that came to mind. Firstly, starting off with why do the Amish live without technology? What benefits them to be different from the rest of the society? Have their views and way of life made such an impact on the society that more and more people are turning to the Amish way? These questions were what I was looking for when first researching for my paper. Coming across these answers and formulating them into a paper was not an easy task, but with the help of my previous work and looking at texts from class helped me present my ideas and information onto paper.
I had obstacles throughout writing this paper. I never was good at analyzing texts and being able to commute my thoughts onto paper. In class discussions we would talk about the different views of technology and how it affects our every day life, but I had a hard time putting our discussions and readings into my paper. To meet the goals, I tried to look past the texts and see what the author is trying to portray, go beyond just the words but find the meaning. Throughout the course it became easier with each text I read and each essay I wrote to connect different authors’ views on technology and with that put it into my research paper to help strengthen a point. At the end of writing my research paper I want the audience to feel they have all the answers or come up with their own conclusions and opinions on why the Amish choose to live the life they do. Why they use a horse and buggy over a car, why the telephone is not allowed, just to get a feel of being in their shoes, which is what I was most interested in when starting this project.
Writing is not my strong point and writing a 10 page paper made me nervous. Throughout the course starting out small with weekly blogs and essays about texts read in class helped me succeed in writing a research paper. Being able to write an essay than have your peers and also teacher comment was also helpful, then going back and fixing the mistakes and taking the comments and revising the essay to make it better gave me great practice. In the beginning of this course I was not very confident in my writing and after having the practice of writing many essays and learning how to do proper research I have been able to gradually put together the research I found about the Amish, previous work and my own thoughts and ideas to develop a 10 page research paper.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
blog assignment #10
A choice that I made for my rough draft was that I didn't include my previous work that I had done into my paper. I basically started from scratch and not included any of the past readings we had read. At the time I didn't think that it was going to be a big deal, but after the conferences I realized it would help a lot with my paper. After the face to face conferences I feel that it helped me realize what I need to do to make a good paper. We talked a lot about adding previous work into the paper and also using the books we read to help strengthen it. I was unsure on how to use previous work into my paper because I thought my topic had no comparision to my previous work. At the conferences, I got great advise on how to incorporate past work and make it flow into my paper. I liked the face to face conferences better than just commenting on peoples work online. I feel that we engage more and have more to say face to face which in the long run helps us. More advise is given and when you ask a question you get a response right away. One thing I got from the conferences is to ask the "why" question. Why do the Amish live the way they do? How do they live and what makes them live this way. Looking at other cultures and why they live the way they do and how it compares to our society today. Also adding in my own opinion and how I feel towards certain topics I am discussing.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Rough Draft-Amish and thier view on technology
Amish and their view on technology
There are many different types of cultures in the world and they all have their unique lifestyle. Monogamy is the lifestyle of having only one spouse at a time while Polygamy they are allowed to have more than one spouse at a given time. Native Americans liked to live in teepees while the white settlers preferred to live in houses. Some may see these lifestyles to be the wrong way to live, but their religion and culture say otherwise. The Amish are a main culture that is looked at to be living in a wrong or unique way because their view on technology. The Amish decide to live their life without the help of most technologies. According to Jamie Sharp, author in The Amish: Technology Practice and Technological Change, Amish don’t have hatred towards technology as most people presume; they simply choose not to incorporate it into their culture. An Amish leader stated, “There is only one way to remain different from the world and that is to be separate” (Kraybill and Olshan 6). There are many aspects as to why the Amish live the way they do and some of their cultural ways are being introduced and used in today society.
To understand why the Amish choose not to use technology in their everyday life, we must look at their background of religion. Amish base their life on the do’s and don’ts around the Ordnung, a religious harness that guides the community in the paths of faithfulness (Kraybill and Olshan 5). The do’s are called prescriptive which include wearing traditional dress and use a horse and carriage, while the don’ts are called proscriptives which include do not drive a car or attend high school (5). These are rules that the Amish live by and they are just like any of the rules that we are known to live by such as Catholics can’t eat meat in Fridays during lent, it’s not written down anywhere just known throughout the culture. In 1978, an Amish community wrote down some Ordnung rules the Amish follow and they are as following:
· Farm with horses and not with power machinery in the field
· No rubber tires on implements and buggies
· No unnecessary lights on buggies except for when used for safety
· No bulk tanks or milkers
· No one shall operate cars or trucks
· No electrical generators except for welding. No lightning rod
· No sinks or colored tubs in the bathroom
· The young people shall not run after pleasure places, have a radio or TV, or watch movies. No wrist watches, bicycles, no drinking or tobacco (Sharp).
The Ordnung is used to keep members separated from the world and Amish leaders fear that a shift in that direction will undermine the integrity and identity of the church (6). Such as the bible states in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world” (6).
The Amish also follow the movement of Anabaptist which is a belief that a person should not be baptized until they are ready to enter a life of faith, repentance, obedience and discipline, the opposite of the Roman Catholic Church which baptize as an infant (Sharp). Anabaptist stated that all daily activities should revolve around the teaching of Jesus Christ leaving them out of participation with any sort of violence (Meyers and Nolt 25). Anabaptists were not liked around religious leaders and political authorities and were sometimes jailed and harassed (25). Back in the day, if a group of people did not believe in the same things or acted the same way as the majority of the people they were punished. This has happened throughout history starting with the Native Americans when they were either forced to become “civilized” like the rest of the group or keep to their culture and beliefs and pay the consequences. How is it right for a group of people to be punished for what they believe in? The Amish are another example of people who focus their beliefs on the bible and the minority again comes up short.
The telephone is a common technology used throughout the 21st century. Now days, I bet it would be hard to find a teenager who doesn’t have a cell phone. This is how people communicate throughout their day and it can be said that people would be lost with out it. Amish families did have telephones in their homes, made by homemade lines yet in 1910; church leaders had banned telephone use (Kraybill and Nolt 127). Church leaders thought the telephone was a threat because religiously they believed separation from the outside world and the telephone was the direct link (127). The Amish main form of communication is face to face and body language is an important necessity in a society of oral communication and the telephone got in the way (127). The telephone does make life easier to communicate with people and I know that I wouldn’t be patient enough to send a letter and wait for a response. The Amish knew the benefits of the telephone, but because of beliefs of connection with the larger world, secret conversations with gossip and behavior not addressed if communicated face to face, they choose to live with out it (Kraybill and Olshan 104).
When I think of the Amish people, two things come to my mind is they ride a horse and carriage and how do they live with out electricity? Electricity is one of the main technologies used throughout the world. Everything is run on electricity. In 1919, the church banned 110-volt electricity from public power lines but not electricity from batteries (Kraybill and Nolt 137). Yet in the 1960’s stationary diesel engines were becoming popular to operate milk refrigeration units and to power a variety of machines. Without the use of 110-volt electricity it was hard to operate so, in stead the Amish turned to hydraulic and pneumatic power (137). They would strip off electric motors in shop equipment and use oil or air driven motors (137). Today enterprises use the “Amish Technology” of oil and air driven motors instead of tapping into public utility lines (138). more and more of the Amish way of life are making an impact in today’s society.
Another impact the Amish are making in today’s society is people are starting to eat organically. The Organic Dictionary states that organic foods are those that are grown without artificial help, such as no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, meat must come from animals without benefit of antibiotics and foods should be free of chemical additives for color, flavor or preservation (11). Organic foods are becoming more and more popular. Just the phrase “going green” is becoming more popular in grocery stores with bags, eliminating the paper and plastic bags and with TV shows teaching people how to eat and clean organically. Organic farms continue to grow today to keep up with the demands of the people (49).
When looking at the Amish lifestyle there are things that are controversial and questioned. For example when an Amish family has a business and the sign on the door says “come in, we’re open” that is welcoming in the outside world and their religion is all about being separate from the outside world (Kraybill and Nolt 163). With that there is also a struggle with advertising without offending the church. Some feel that advertising pays off while others feel a simple sign on the side of the road and word of mouth is the best advertising (164). In fact large enterprises boasting annual sales of a million dollars, claim they use only a simple sign along the road. They reveal an Amish skepticism towards glitzy promotion and worldly fanfare (165). The Amish have such an impact on our daily lives that most people aren’t aware of it. The Amish prove that the simpler things to operate and maneuver tend to work the best than high-tech technology.
There are many different types of cultures in the world and they all have their unique lifestyle. Monogamy is the lifestyle of having only one spouse at a time while Polygamy they are allowed to have more than one spouse at a given time. Native Americans liked to live in teepees while the white settlers preferred to live in houses. Some may see these lifestyles to be the wrong way to live, but their religion and culture say otherwise. The Amish are a main culture that is looked at to be living in a wrong or unique way because their view on technology. The Amish decide to live their life without the help of most technologies. According to Jamie Sharp, author in The Amish: Technology Practice and Technological Change, Amish don’t have hatred towards technology as most people presume; they simply choose not to incorporate it into their culture. An Amish leader stated, “There is only one way to remain different from the world and that is to be separate” (Kraybill and Olshan 6). There are many aspects as to why the Amish live the way they do and some of their cultural ways are being introduced and used in today society.
To understand why the Amish choose not to use technology in their everyday life, we must look at their background of religion. Amish base their life on the do’s and don’ts around the Ordnung, a religious harness that guides the community in the paths of faithfulness (Kraybill and Olshan 5). The do’s are called prescriptive which include wearing traditional dress and use a horse and carriage, while the don’ts are called proscriptives which include do not drive a car or attend high school (5). These are rules that the Amish live by and they are just like any of the rules that we are known to live by such as Catholics can’t eat meat in Fridays during lent, it’s not written down anywhere just known throughout the culture. In 1978, an Amish community wrote down some Ordnung rules the Amish follow and they are as following:
· Farm with horses and not with power machinery in the field
· No rubber tires on implements and buggies
· No unnecessary lights on buggies except for when used for safety
· No bulk tanks or milkers
· No one shall operate cars or trucks
· No electrical generators except for welding. No lightning rod
· No sinks or colored tubs in the bathroom
· The young people shall not run after pleasure places, have a radio or TV, or watch movies. No wrist watches, bicycles, no drinking or tobacco (Sharp).
The Ordnung is used to keep members separated from the world and Amish leaders fear that a shift in that direction will undermine the integrity and identity of the church (6). Such as the bible states in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world” (6).
The Amish also follow the movement of Anabaptist which is a belief that a person should not be baptized until they are ready to enter a life of faith, repentance, obedience and discipline, the opposite of the Roman Catholic Church which baptize as an infant (Sharp). Anabaptist stated that all daily activities should revolve around the teaching of Jesus Christ leaving them out of participation with any sort of violence (Meyers and Nolt 25). Anabaptists were not liked around religious leaders and political authorities and were sometimes jailed and harassed (25). Back in the day, if a group of people did not believe in the same things or acted the same way as the majority of the people they were punished. This has happened throughout history starting with the Native Americans when they were either forced to become “civilized” like the rest of the group or keep to their culture and beliefs and pay the consequences. How is it right for a group of people to be punished for what they believe in? The Amish are another example of people who focus their beliefs on the bible and the minority again comes up short.
The telephone is a common technology used throughout the 21st century. Now days, I bet it would be hard to find a teenager who doesn’t have a cell phone. This is how people communicate throughout their day and it can be said that people would be lost with out it. Amish families did have telephones in their homes, made by homemade lines yet in 1910; church leaders had banned telephone use (Kraybill and Nolt 127). Church leaders thought the telephone was a threat because religiously they believed separation from the outside world and the telephone was the direct link (127). The Amish main form of communication is face to face and body language is an important necessity in a society of oral communication and the telephone got in the way (127). The telephone does make life easier to communicate with people and I know that I wouldn’t be patient enough to send a letter and wait for a response. The Amish knew the benefits of the telephone, but because of beliefs of connection with the larger world, secret conversations with gossip and behavior not addressed if communicated face to face, they choose to live with out it (Kraybill and Olshan 104).
When I think of the Amish people, two things come to my mind is they ride a horse and carriage and how do they live with out electricity? Electricity is one of the main technologies used throughout the world. Everything is run on electricity. In 1919, the church banned 110-volt electricity from public power lines but not electricity from batteries (Kraybill and Nolt 137). Yet in the 1960’s stationary diesel engines were becoming popular to operate milk refrigeration units and to power a variety of machines. Without the use of 110-volt electricity it was hard to operate so, in stead the Amish turned to hydraulic and pneumatic power (137). They would strip off electric motors in shop equipment and use oil or air driven motors (137). Today enterprises use the “Amish Technology” of oil and air driven motors instead of tapping into public utility lines (138). more and more of the Amish way of life are making an impact in today’s society.
Another impact the Amish are making in today’s society is people are starting to eat organically. The Organic Dictionary states that organic foods are those that are grown without artificial help, such as no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, meat must come from animals without benefit of antibiotics and foods should be free of chemical additives for color, flavor or preservation (11). Organic foods are becoming more and more popular. Just the phrase “going green” is becoming more popular in grocery stores with bags, eliminating the paper and plastic bags and with TV shows teaching people how to eat and clean organically. Organic farms continue to grow today to keep up with the demands of the people (49).
When looking at the Amish lifestyle there are things that are controversial and questioned. For example when an Amish family has a business and the sign on the door says “come in, we’re open” that is welcoming in the outside world and their religion is all about being separate from the outside world (Kraybill and Nolt 163). With that there is also a struggle with advertising without offending the church. Some feel that advertising pays off while others feel a simple sign on the side of the road and word of mouth is the best advertising (164). In fact large enterprises boasting annual sales of a million dollars, claim they use only a simple sign along the road. They reveal an Amish skepticism towards glitzy promotion and worldly fanfare (165). The Amish have such an impact on our daily lives that most people aren’t aware of it. The Amish prove that the simpler things to operate and maneuver tend to work the best than high-tech technology.
Monday, April 6, 2009
assignment #9
Rodale, Robert. The Organic Dictionary. Emmaus: Rodale P, 1971
Garrett, Ruth Irene, and Rick Farrant. Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life. Harper Collins, 2003.
Sharp, Jamie. "The Amish: Technology Practice adn Technological Change." Shaw Creek General Store (1999).
I feel that these sources have helped me get a better grasp on what I want to write about in my research. I have a background information on the Amish of their culture and religion which will give me a good base seeing as my research topis is mostly the Amish culture with technology. Seeing as more people are turning "green" I will be comparing the lifestyle changes people are making to become more organic and healthy, which is one of the ways the Amish live. Then there is also a true story of an Amish women who left the Amish community to be on her own in the "real world." I feel that this story will help me get an idea that the Amish life isn't for everyone and what it does to the family when a family member leaves.
Overall, through researching come up with more things I want to talk about in my research and also more questions on when is it too much information and getting too broad. I still think my idea is the same on How the Amish culture choose to live with out technology and how other people are turning to their lifestyle such as with organic foods and farming.
Garrett, Ruth Irene, and Rick Farrant. Crossing Over: One Woman's Escape from Amish Life. Harper Collins, 2003.
Sharp, Jamie. "The Amish: Technology Practice adn Technological Change." Shaw Creek General Store (1999).
I feel that these sources have helped me get a better grasp on what I want to write about in my research. I have a background information on the Amish of their culture and religion which will give me a good base seeing as my research topis is mostly the Amish culture with technology. Seeing as more people are turning "green" I will be comparing the lifestyle changes people are making to become more organic and healthy, which is one of the ways the Amish live. Then there is also a true story of an Amish women who left the Amish community to be on her own in the "real world." I feel that this story will help me get an idea that the Amish life isn't for everyone and what it does to the family when a family member leaves.
Overall, through researching come up with more things I want to talk about in my research and also more questions on when is it too much information and getting too broad. I still think my idea is the same on How the Amish culture choose to live with out technology and how other people are turning to their lifestyle such as with organic foods and farming.
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