One example of the religious divide in my locale is the Amish population in the Lancaster County area of the state of Pennsylvania and there are Amish populations in other states in the United States as well. This is a digital divide that occurs out of beliefs rather than economic disadvantage. The schooling of the Amish is in private Amish schools. As Amish people reach adulthood, they have the option of leaving the Amish community rather than become adult members. Adult Amish people who do not follow the ways of the Amish faith are shunned, a very serious loss of the entire community fellowship and support. The Amish life is an agrarian one with some related trades practiced including the production of craft items for sale. Motor vehicles and electricity are not a part of the acceptable culture of the Amish. When necessary, the Amish will ride on public conveyances, so it is conceivable that community centers for internet access could become an acceptable method for the Amish to use modern media, but this simply may not be an option if it conflicts with the viewpoints of this unique community. I thought that this might be a useful example to illustrate the concept of religious digital divide found in the post below mine. I stand to be corrected regarding any and all comments as these comments come from my own personal experience of the Amish from personal reading and observations during visits to Lancaster County.
Sincerely, David Dillard Temple University (215) 204 - 4584 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold> <http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html> <http://www.kovacs.com/medref-l/medref-l.html> <http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/net-gold.html> <http://www.LIFEofFlorida.org> World Business Community Advisor <http://www.WorldBusinessCommunity.org> ===================================================== On Fri, 6 May 2005, Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: > Another word on this matter of romanticizing the "community." > To the list of "divides" that now includes the "digital divide" we might add > the "ethnic divide," the "religious divide," and a larger list that embraces > these that might be called the "cultural divide." > In Iraq, for example, to take an obvious case, who represents the > "community," and speaks for it: those who voted in the recent election or > those who want to kill them for doing so? > And it is not clear--to me, at least--that if we had a thousand telecenters > in Iraq that the other divides would shrink. > None of this should limit our efforts to shrink the digital divide. But it > might limit our claims for what computers and communication can do about the > other divides. > Steve Eskow > [EMAIL PROTECTED] =============================================== <snip> _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
