Look Who's Talking Analysis

Whether it is family, friends, or even a significant other, a lot of millennials depend their relationships on technology. Most use multiple social media programs to connect with the rest of the world and can text each other hours on end. Yet they cannot hold a face-to-face conversation without being so distracted by their devices. So from the anecdotes that author Howard Rheingold wrote in the article “Look Who’s Talking”, he reveals how Amish community treats technology in a different way. Rheingold was able to prove that Amish people are not just a bunch of technophobes, they have deep philosophical reasons why they choose to not integrate technology in their everyday lives. There exists hundreds of social media programs that helps connect the world together. …show more content…
With the anonymity that comes with technology, people tend to forget how words can take a detrimental effect on their relationships because of how easy and quick technology makes people communicate with each other. The Amish people however, have strong relationships because they center their community values on family and close relationships. They even purposely built their houses closer to each other so that they do not have to rely on cars or other transportation devices to go to each other’s houses. Bishops in the Amish community also serves as the regulators of which types of technologies the rest of the community can use by questioning themselves with, “Does it bring us together, or draw us apart?” (Reingold) This shows how just how much Amish people value their relationships. So when the Amish first used the telephone for businesses and public use, they introduced telephones in homes in hopes of bringing people together. However, conflicts between the members of the community emerged. Moses, an Amish member that helped give insight to the Amish community for Rheingold,