I hadn't heard the term urban Amish before, but today a 41 year old man wrote a letter to the newspaper saying he hasn't been on a computer, email, Blogs, and even doesn't use a cell phone. He called himself an urban Amish. I would have understood a 75-year-old saying that, but a 41 year-old?

When I first started on this site, one of my early threads was asking for a word to mean "computer unsavvy ." While this phrase isn't perfect, it surely is close to what I'd wanted (it's better than ninnyhammer). Heck, it only took 5 years.

Doesn't "Luddite" have the same connotation?

Luddite seems nowadays to be negative, whereas Amish has the sense of quaintness without being a put-down, IMHO.

I agree. Luddites want to destroy technology, the Amish just want to withdraw from it.

Interesting. I had forgotten about Luddite.

http://macnelly.com/ Go to February 28th

Ah, funny!

What desperately bad navigation on that site! Is there any way to go to February 28th without pressing the "Previous" arrow, waiting for that page to load, then pressing it again ad nauseam?

I felt the same way, arnie. How annoying!

BTW, your use of "desperately" was interesting to me. Normally I see it to mean "having an urgent need."

You don't have to "wait for that page to load." Just click "PREVIOUS" twenty times and there you are.

Damn. I was about to tell him that. Jerry beat me to it.

quote:

a 41 year old man wrote a letter to the newspaper saying he hasn't been on a computer, email, Blogs, and even doesn't use a cell phone. He called himself an urban Amish. I would have understood a 75-year-old saying that, but a 41 year-old?

Words that come to my mind include:
pathetically backwards
head-in-the-sand simple
clueless

I also think luddite fits, along with the negative connotations. I don't think it's noble or quaint at all to avoid and/or eschew progress. Of course, I am of the opinion that technology is a wonderful, delightful tool/toy that is enhancing our society, and is not something to be feared.

Yes, Jerry, I missed that. Still, it seems kind of archaic even when you do that. Doing it your way makes it much better, though.

I agree, CW. I can't imagine not using a computer. I can understand how some like IM and others like Blogs, while some like forums and others like Twitter and others only use Google and email...but to use none of it and to not even use your cell phone? And he's only 41? There's something wrong.

quote:

that technology is a wonderful, delightful tool/toy that is enhancing our society, and is not something to be feared.

Terminator I, II and III

Hey, those were great* movies! They were also fiction. We can barely get a word processor to compile and work, let alone build liquid metal androids. (Now where did I put my sense of humo(u)r?)

* Well, at least the first two were.

Fiction is often tomorrow's reality.

(Ah. Found it!)

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
Fiction is often tomorrow's reality.

Based on those assinine TV shows, I fear that "reality" is today's fiction.

In just two more days from today, tomorrow will be yesterday.

22 + 2 - 1 = yesterday. Jerry's Law of Relativity is proven..