Post #4: Offline and Online Amish



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 the online community.
The first meme titled “Amish Uber” shows that humans are interested in ideas or different ways of living other than their own. Since there are many vehicles of many shapes and sizes, humans grow accustomed to what they surround themselves with. For example, in the 21st century, humans are more prone to see a 4-door sedan rather than a horse buggy. Why? Humans are always looking at ways to advance the society around them and because of that when old traditions, such as what the Amish practice, they (humans) are fascinated by it. The humans are imposing themselves onto this specific community. Another quote from the book states from a Amish member that “Jesus commanded us to come out from the world, and be separated, and touch not the unclean things…” (Umble & Weaver-Zercher, 2008, pg. 25). Humans like to impose themselves on interesting ideas and cultures and that is what exactly they are doing with the Amish community.
          The second meme assumes these men are indeed Amish members. This meme is still an outside connection because the Amish do not use media frequently in their society so, it stereotypes Amish members because we do not know whether these men are indeed Amish. It is by the way they dress and look that the media stamps these men as members of this specific culture. Also, it shows that the men at a coffee shop with a laptop in front of them. The picture assumes that the coffee shop has WIFI and if it does, then the picture labels the WIFI as slower than an Amish activity. This activity is churning butter and because the media has an outside view of the Amish, they once again are assuming that Amish have this activity in their society










http://www.pcdesktopbackgrounds.com/amish-uber-funny- meme/


https://twitter.com/amishswag/status/279659470437638145

Comments

  1. Soup Twin-1November 2, 2017 at 8:14 AM

    Good observations. What seems to be the overall tone of these memes in how it frames the Amish community vs "the English"? What overall message does this send about religion in the 21st century?!

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