The Amish Don’t Hate Technology
pick and choose: to carefully select only the things you want and reject the rest
Many people think the Amish hate technology. The truth is more nuanced. The Amish are a Christian group in North America. About 380,000 live in the United States, mostly in small farming communities. They live simply by choice, because of their religious faith. At home they speak their own language, an old form of German. They farm by hand and travel in horse-drawn carriages. But they do not reject every new technology. They pick and choose, always thinking about the effect on the group.
This is why they banned the home telephone long ago. As one expert said, “if you have a phone and you can call, why visit?” They avoid owning cars for the same reason. A car makes it too easy to leave and drive to the city. Each choice protects the group.
Now there is a new test: artificial intelligence. Some Amish already keep computers and telephones outside the home, in a barn or a shared booth, to use for work. A few are now trying AI in their small businesses. One man even used it to write his wife a love letter. She read it and laughed. “This is so not my husband,” she said.
Other Amish refuse it. Each community decides differently, but they all start from the same question. Will this bring us closer, or pull us apart? Most of us rush to adopt whatever is new, and worry about the cost later. For the Amish, the community comes first, always.
Sample sentences
At a buffet, you can pick and choose whatever you want and leave the rest.
“You can’t pick and choose which rules to follow,” the coach said. “Everyone does the full warm-up.”
When you are young, you can’t always pick and choose your job. You take what you can get.
