At a recent Amish trade show, the focus was mainly on power tools, but there was another booth that came as a surprise — the one selling computers to the Amish. They key selling point is all the things the computer doesn’t do — no Internet, no video, no music. It’s ‘80s-era technology that lets you do basic word-processing, spreadsheets and accounting. It’s the kind of thing some Amish people would find acceptable to use for work. In general, the Amish are more willing to adopt new technology if they can justify it for business reasons and keep it out of the home. What many people don’t know is that many Amish have phones; they just keep them in a separate building away from the home. For some Amish communities, it come down to ownership. Some Amish business owners use computers that actually belong to a non-Amish person. Anything that enables them to do business can apparently be justified, as long as they don’t own it or keep it in their home. Apparently, the Amish are progressing right along with technology.
