Amish Community

In my case study, I will be focusing on the Amish community in two ways 1.) How the media portrays the Amish 2.) How the Amish uses media depicted through memes. In this week’s topic, we are addressing the perceptions of religion online and offline. One thing I have noticed with researching memes about the Amish is there’s a strong online connection to the Amish. This means that the media and the online community are drawn into the Amish. As we have seen in previous blogs and memes, the Amish are not a progressive society. They do not want to be bothered and would be, bluntly, left alone. In The Amish and the media by DZ Umble & DL Weaver-Zercher, they make a great point about the Amish and their tie to the media. “The Amish came to mean a great deal to the media and their consumers, not because they altered their way of living, but because the world around them changed” (Umble & Weaver-Zercher, 2008, pg. 12). The two memes I selected this week highlight this desire from ...

An interesting takeaway from searching these images is that they only show mainly JUST Amish men or women. Unless if it is a “family” photo where there is the husband, wife and children, the images usually separate the gender in the society. I had mentioned in my last blog. This particular community of believers is highlighted by the media to a separation in gender. However, I believe that that the separation of genders is a belief that the Amish value. The style of clothing that the Amish are seen wearing has been depicted in these memes. Whether it is the typical, two button, jean and hat attire or if it is a long conservative dress with the hiking boots for women, these images are shown. In the meme with the two “Amish” (I use quotes because these men are probably not Amish but fit the mold of what a typical Amish believer looks like)) men at the coffee shop, they are wearing the typical outfit an Amish member would be wearing. Since technology is not a part of this community...