by Ryan Wasson
Smartphones and the internet have been adopted worldwide by virtually everybody that has access to these elements. But what about the people that decide to go against this era of consistent digital progression?
I recently read a scholarly article published by Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar, a senior lecturer at Sapir Academic College in Sderot, Israel. In the article, Shahar discusses a study she conducted on both the Old Order Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jews, to try and determine cellphone and smartphone use among these groups. I feel this is a perfect group to discuss the idea of phone usage, as these groups clearly have access to these materials. The only question left to answer is whether or not these groups choose to adopt this technology that surrounds them.
Her findings indicate that most Amish don’t use anything related to a cell phone or smartphone. Shahar says they believe owning a cellphone has the ability to “harm family and community commitments,” (Shahar, 2020). The Ultra-Orthodox Jews, however, have a different approach to the cellphone. According to Shahar, the Jews look at the functionality of the cellphone and focus on utilizing the cellphone so that family members can keep in contact with one another (Shahar, 2020). Amish communities tend to be pretty tight knit, so even though some Amish may not seek to adopt using a smartphone or even a cellphone, I believe this does not affect their mobility all that much. When I was much younger, my school visited a Hutterite group which hold similar beliefs and practices to that of the Amish, and we noticed how while much of their technology was dated, they did have much more modern technology when it came to agricultural work.
Despite this adoption for the Amish, I believe the Ultra-Orthodox Jews did a much better job of analyzing and adapting cellphones. Shahar says that both groups value close community and fear that creating a link to the outside world through these devices could cause exposure to prohibited content within these communities as well as destroy connections within both families and the community (Shahar, 2020). I believe the Jews, understanding this and the usefulness of a basic cellphone, promoted and eventually adopted the idea of using what is known as a kosher cellphone.
The only difference between the cellphone the average consumer would buy, and its kosher counterpart, is that the kosher version has much less features and its capabilities are limited to the desires of the group that uses it (Shahar, 2020). More often than not, this means that kosher phones do little more than call and are used for family and business purposes. I believe this gives the Jews a slight advantage in how they are willing to use a cellphone where the Amish have, for the most part refused to do so. They have made themselves, by comparison to the Amish, much more mobile in both the working world and within the family.
The only question I’m left asking myself is the survivability of these communities with their lack of adoption to technology. While there are some drawbacks to having my smartphone, I believe having it has made the quality of my life much better overall when I know how to use it properly. As technology continues to advance, I’m interested in seeing how well the family ties of these communities can last without feeling the need to bend their rules to adopt a much newer form of technology.
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