I knew a kid who grew up in an “odd” household, no tv, no radio, a few old jazz records lying around. He didn’t know anything about pop culture beyond those records until he was in his late teens maybe even into his twenties.
Simple answer is if you have no access to television, radio, or the internet how are you going to absorb much pop culture? I’m sure that some Amish go to stores where they hear piped music but many probably don’t.
Most Amish don’t have televisions, computers, and phones in their houses. Depending on the sect, there are different levels of avoidance of mainstream media, so they may not read the newspaper, either.
Some Amish communities have a communal phone (in a shack somewhere) for emergency use. And some may have cell phones and a communal radio for weather reports and such.
In any case, it’s not exactly difficult to isolate yourself from pop culture if you don’t watch TV, use the Internet, or read the paper, and exclusively hang around with other people who also don’t do that.
I think the amount of exposure depends a lot upon how strict the particular sect (is that the right word?) is. I know somebody who is neighbors with a particular Amish family. A few months ago, he caught his Amish neighbors running an extension chord from his garage so they could watch a movie on a portable DVD player. The movie? It was an introductory video to a multi-level marketing scheme! Not only that, but he said most of the Amish he knows use nice electronic fish finders in their boats. They’re not all totally cut off from mainstream society. I think a lot of measures are taken to romanticize the Amish as these completely pious, quaint outsiders when they’re normal people, just like you and I.
There’s a section in the book Lost Ohio by Randy McNutt about that newspaper. It is apparently used as a bulletin board by geographically isolated groups of Amish and Mennonites across North America.
It is common for the Amish to get kicked out of the community into mainstream society for a while as teenagers and then they have to make a personal decision to ask to rejoin later. They are known for being absolute hellions during that period of their lives. I have seen documentaries on it and I think Scylla even wrote a thread about the little bastards a long time ago but I can’t find it. They aren’t truly isolated and they aren’t anti-technology in the purest sense of the word either. Their main goal is to have a strong community and not let outside influences separate them from that.
The Amish aren’t “isolated” in the sense they live in enclaves and are never permitted to leave. Amish travel all the time, often extensively, even while following the rules of their sect. They certainly have contact with people on the outside, many work in outside businesses, and so forth.
But they’re “kept in the dark about pop culture” because they don’t watch TV, listen to the radio, or use the internet for recreation (they will do so if they have a job requiring it). They are aware that there is this “pop culture” thing out there, they just, by and large, have no interest in it or don’t feel it should be part of their lives.
Thus, it does not surprise me that an Amish teenager would know the First Lady’s name, as the Amish are aware of political things, particularly those that may affect them. It does not surprise me that an Amish teenager would have no clue who Madonna is, as it is highly unlikely he’d have ever heard her music, seen her on TV, or read a mainstream tabloid talking about her.
Do young teenagers normally know who Madonna is? She hasn’t done anything in 20 years.
Heck, I’m 31 and have no clue who Kanye West or Perez Hilton are, what the show House or Glitter Girl are about and have never heard a song by Christiana Agulara or Jessica Simpson or even know what they look like.
Sorry, I know this is no help to the thread, but this guy sounds ok to me, just slightly behind because the things he doesn’t care about are older than the things I don’t care about.
The last time I was in Pennsylvania I noticed a few Amish kids with iPods and cellphones. Not sure where they would charge up or load an iPod nor what they would have been listening to but those kids didn’t seem all that isolated. The only other electrical devices I noticed within the community were the turn signals on the buggies.
I’ve heard that many sects of the Amish don’t have prohibition on batteries, which might account for a lot of the portable devices (fish finders, iPods, cellphones) being okay… although I don’t think any of those particular devices have removable batteries, which makes charging them somewhat suspect.
Well, the Amish are more of a denominational grouping than they are an actual denomination. It’s like with the Methodists. You’ve got the United Methodists, the AME, the Church of the Nazarene, etc. They all come out of the Methodist tradition but they also have individual doctrines and attitudes that distinguish them.
Yes, I would say most do. In the last 20 years, she’s actually released several albums, gone on worldwide tours, and has even starred in a couple of movies. A young teenager probably wouldn’t of experienced any of this, but she’s culturally significant enough to where they would at least know of her.
Elvis died before I was even born, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know who he is.
I am from an area of Ohio that is rife with Amish. (Near Holmes County.) Many years ago, I vaguely recall reading an article in the paper about a coke ring that got busted up. The coke dealers were a couple of Amish guys in Lancaster County, PA. Ironically, they were buying it from a motorcycle gang called – get this – The Pagans.
Who would suspect your friendly neighborhood Amish dude is a coke dealer? They were, apparently, not smart enough to avoid getting caught. Cite.
