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posted by chromas on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the less-is-more,-more-or-less dept.

Submitted via IRC for fyngyrz

When people hear "Appalachia," stereotypes and even slurs often immediately jump to mind, words like "backwards," "ignorant," "hillbilly" or "yokel." But Appalachian attitudes about technology's role in daily life are extremely sophisticated—and turn out to be both insightful and useful in a technology-centric society.

[...] In a recent study, my colleagues and I used focus groups and interviews to explore how people use technology in rural Appalachia. These open-ended methods allow participants to discuss their experiences and opinions in their own terms. For instance, most technology surveys don't ask people why they don't own the latest phone or computer—they just assume people would if they could.

Those studies miss key insights our research was able to identify and explore. When we gave people a chance to tell their own stories about technology, we most often heard about two themes.

The first, which we called "resistance," appeared in people's doubts about the concept that more technology is always better. They also carefully considered whether the potential usefulness of new technologies was worth the privacy sacrifices inherently required to use them.

People also described their intentional choices about how much technology to use and for what purposes—as well as intentional choices not to use technology in some situations. We called this theme "navigation."

Source: https://theconversation.com/resisting-technology-appalachian-style-94245


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:42AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @10:42AM (#662859)

    Sounds like they targeted the wrong group. The Amish already has a system for all of this. They take a new piece of tech and let a few people explore how it works and how it fits into their life. Then they explore the pros and cons of the tech and how it changes those people's daily lives. Finally they decided either to adopt the tech or not based on its effects.

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  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:19AM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:19AM (#662869) Journal

    That would have given a much shorter study, with fewer "the stereotypes* are wrong, maybe we can learn from the hicks!" statements.

    *the author of the summary is likely a well-meaning, academic, and we all know how lost, and out-of-touch *they* are!

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:30AM (3 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:30AM (#662872)

    Agreed. A Common Misconception of the Amish is that they disdain technology. Not so! Some years ago I was stunned to see an Amish carpenter, getting out of a pickup truck (passenger) talking on a cell phone. That's not right! I also saw PV panels on poles around their farms, on barn roofs, etc. What's going on here?! The world is broken!

    While some shun technology, it's more that they don't ever want any Amish societal disruption, or dependency on the "English" - generally anyone outside of their society.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:50AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @11:50AM (#662880)

      They don't avoid all technology. For instance, some groups allow cell phones if they are recharged by generator rather than the grid. The Old Beachy Amish allow more, including the use of cars.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Beachy_Amish [wikipedia.org]

      • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:59PM

        by RS3 (6367) on Thursday April 05 2018, @04:59PM (#663004)

        They don't avoid all technology.

        That's exactly what I said. Did you misunderstand my previous post?

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @03:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 05 2018, @03:54PM (#662978)

      The Amish also have some things forced upon them. In particular, if they are in the dairy business, they are required to have things like refrigeration if they are going to sell it to the public, so it isn't unusual to see an Amish farm with electricity out in the barn.