Social Networks - A Lesson From The Amish
Are you on Facebook? What about MySpace, Gowalla, Foursquare, Bebo, deviantART, Flickr or Last.FM? The list of social networking sites grows and grows every day, just look at this wiki page for proof!
I was reading an interesting article on the Amish people recently. Being under the impression that the Amish automatically reject technology and do not use it at all, I found the article quite enlightening and it has made me think about how I use social networks, indeed if I should use them at all.
You see, it would appear that Amish communities do not just reject technology, they evaluate it’s worth. Their initial reaction to anything new is to say ‘no’. They do not use something just because it appears to be beneficial, they need proof. Some Amish people use cars for example and I believe their use and perception of this technology can help us have a more beneficial use of social networks.
Let’s go back to the early years of the motor industry. Cars are becoming more and more popular as people start to realise the benefits of this new form of transport. Now let’s imagine we have some Amish friends, I would be the first person to think that they would benefit from this new technology. They are a hard working people, surely they can only benefit from a technology that enables them to travel farther in less time. We talk to our Amish friends about this great new technology and all of it’s benefits and much to our amazement they say…no thank you.
We leave them for some months to reconsider. On our return we find they still do not welcome the motor car. You see, to the Amish the car is a vehicle that enables them to travel greater distances in less time, but that separates people from the local community. Farmers travel to markets further away, which takes them away from their families. All of a sudden the family life that such a close-knit community is built on, is threatened by this great new technology.
The point as far as social networks go is this, before we jump on the bandwagon of a particular social network STOP! Take a moment to think about the other side of the equation :
If I join Facebook I can contact and be contacted by all those people I have lost touch with!
- There is a reason you lost touch in the first place.
I can use the information people post about themselves to find friends who have similar interests!
- If somebody stopped you in the street and asked for your personal details would you tell them? Thats what we are doing on these sites.
It makes it easier to keep in touch with the people I don’t get to see very often.
- This is tied in with the first point but sometimes you need to give people the chance to miss you.
I am in the process of closing my Facebook account, I still use Twitter and Tumblr (obviously!). Since I no longer use Facebook I have found a definite improvement in the quality of my friendships. Thats not to say that you cannot have close friends online and in the flesh, but what I am saying is if you are not careful your online life can take over from your actual life. A little scrutiny can go a long way.
