Final Blog: The Amish

In my case study, I focused on the Amish community and how online media portrays this specific culture through memes. Since the Amish don't allow media like computers, cellphones, etc. in their community, the online media dictated how I saw this religious group. I had located 12 memes through the search engine “Google images”. The site had an array of memes portraying Amish and their usage on media. I focused on constantly finding Amish members within their community. Through the searching of many different memes online, I was able to locate some specific stereotypes about the Amish. The media points out that all of the Amish are non-progressive. Whether that’s with their automobiles or their clothing, the memes I found focused heavily on this. For example, a meme with two men dressed up as Amish in coffee shop with the wording "I played Farmville before it was cool" had some impacts. Since Amish have a tight or close bond to their community, these men are not particularly Amish unless they had left their community. Furthermore, if we believe they are not Amish, the meme focuses on their clothing (which I had discussed as a way to stereotype this religious group) which is a good indicator that online media assumes that these men belong in the Amish community. Media have been attracted to the Amish for what feels like centuries. The offline world (Amish communities) has been dominated by the online world. Unless online media interacts with the offline world, then the Amish will slowly be an afterthought.
            When it comes to media and technology, the Amish are ruled by their community. In the book, The Amish & the Media by Diane Zimmerman Umble and David L. Weaver-Zercher, they explain how the Amish are governed in their society. They recall that it is not the by the Bible that they are governed but by the Amish bishops. A bishop is defined by being a senior member within a Christian clergy. The rules, as the book describes, “may be based on scriptures, but these scriptures are interpreted and enforced by church leaders on a district-by-district basis” (Umble & Weaver-Zercher, 2008, pg. 48). Furthermore, they are also under obligation to the community. In the book, The Riddle of Amish Culture by Donald B. Kraybill, the author orchestrates the idea authority for the Amish. “The leader and his family yield to the community by ‘giving themselves up’ for the larger cause” (Kraybill, 2001, pg. 130). The offline community has always presented itself as breaking away from current culture. The online community has no regard for the decision that the Amish made and instead invade and intrude on their personal space. The relationship between the online and the offline communities can be seen as “broken-away”. Amish communities have no desire to work online for the sake publishing news and information to the worldwide web. As one Lancaster County Amish man said “We shall not be conformed to this world, but be transformed” (Umble & Weaver-Zercher, 2008, pg. 25)
            

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