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 MyNorthwest Blog

The Facebook 'Amish' - How do they live without it?!

October 10, 2011 @ 5:40 pm (Updated: 6:09 pm - 10/10/11 )

facebookwrong

By Josh Kerns/97.3 KIRO FM (and Facebook 'enthusiast' who could quit anytime I want. I just don't want to.)

Pregnancy...check. New job...check. Drunken embarrassment...check. It seems like whenever something happens with one of my friends, family, or distant high school acquaintance I vaguely remember from English class, I hear about it first on Facebook.

It's become a lifeline for many of us, and with 750 million users worldwide, it seems more likely to win the lottery than it is to find someone who isn't on Facebook.

Seattle-area small business consultant Elizabeth Case is one of them.

Listen to 97.3 KIRO FM's Josh Kerns profiles people who refuse to fall for Facebook

antifacebook

"I didn't like high school, I talk to the one person in high school I'm still friends with. That's really all I need. I don't really care about your kids, or how you're doing," Case laughs.

Case actually isn't quite as crass as she might sound, and she's not alone. Even though Facebook boasted over 163 million unique visitors in August, 52 million others avoided the social networking site.

Some merely avoid it. Others actively oppose it (for everything from privacy to psychological reasons.) Plenty of sites and blogs have popped up in protest, like sickfacebook.com, the Anti-Facebook League of Intelligentsia.

Case says when Facebook started it was just for college students, and she'd already graduated. She thought it was a passing fad like My Space.

And she says there are plenty of other ways to communicate personally and professionally, including (god forbid) face to face.

"If I miss you and want to talk to you and want to see you, then I will email or call you and say 'let's get lunch' or 'hey, we're coming down to visit next month, are you guys going to be in town?'," Case says.

710 ESPN salesman Tyler Hanberg is another one I've taken to calling part of the Facebook 'Amish.' Somehow, he's building a successful career here and personal life, all without a single status update.

"Even my grandma is on. And it's weird. And my other grandma. And it's like, how is it that your grandma's on it and your not. And I just have no desire."

Hanberg admits he thought it was a passing fad and dismissed out of hand. And watching his wife spend so much time social networking, he calls it...insert gasp here...a waste of time!

But clearly he is sadly misinformed. When I checked the stats (on Facebook), I found us Facebook users only spend an average 15 hours and 33 minutes on the site each month. That's a mere 23 minutes each visit.

And even the haters have to admit with so many of us sharing our most important life moments on Facebook, sometimes they miss things.

"You know we've missed a couple of cousins being born. Like cousins who have had kids, and it was 'oh they had a third baby. I didn't even know they were pregnant,' says Elizabeth. "Didn't I tell you, or didn't my mom tell you? It was on Facebook."

But ultimately, despite the constant shock they get when they tell people they aren't there, Tyler, Elizabeth and millions of other Facebook 'Amish' insist their personal and business lives are just fine without it (just don't mess with their horse and buggy.)

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Comments (7)


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  • DJFavorite wrote...
    So what do you call Amish who use Facebook?
    October 11, 2011 6:20 am
    I just watched an episode of 'How the States Got Their Shapes' and they were talking about how the Amish impacted Pennsylvania shape. They ended up interviewing an Amish businessman and they said they had a Facebook page. (The son even admitted to checking FB.)
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  • Judy L wrote...
    I do fine, thank you.
    October 11, 2011 9:47 am
    At the insistence of a friend, I set up a page, but with tight restrictions. I'm on the computer all day for work, and don't feel like spending much of my off time on one. I prefer to read a book, play with my dogs, and yes, watch TV. Other than personal business (banking & paying bills), I don't spend much time at home on the internet, and haven't visited my page in some time. I'm thinking of deleting it...
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  • Stevebo wrote...
    I'm on Facebook
    October 11, 2011 9:57 am
    But I don't use it much at all.

    Facebook was awesome in that it got me back in touch with old high school and college friends again... and even in touch with some family members that I hadn't talked to in some time.

    That being said, I don't use Facebook much at all. I do very occasionally post a picture or two on it - but as already mentioned, I don't have a sense of self importance to think that people care much about my day to day life.

    Facebook has a use I think. But I think it's entirely overhyped.

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  • Lillyrose125 wrote...
    Facebook
    October 11, 2011 11:21 am
    I too got on Facebook to touch base with old highschool friends, but I don't understand the people that update it constantly with what they are doing or they feel. Just weird. I don't care. I am thinking of closing it out since I never use it.
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  • sburke wrote...
    Major life events on Facebook
    October 11, 2011 11:24 am
    Facebook turned me off when I learned that someone close to me was in the hospital..how? A friend who knows that I don't get on FB that often, called me to tell me that it was posted on FB. Apparently, it didn't warrant a personal call, text or email.
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  • FredGardner wrote...
    Josh Kerns seems to be insecure about something
    October 12, 2011 4:20 pm
    I find it interesting that Mr. Kerns makes fun of people who don't use Facebook, questions their social skills and calls them names, and all because we choose to do something else with our lives besides what he's doing with his. Insecure much, Mr. Kerns? Some stereotypes have a basis in truth, after all. Also, I note that he's using "Facebook statistics;" specifically, "average" time spent rather than "median" time spent, which would screen out the hundreds of millions of inactive users that make all their stats look more attractive.
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  • joshkernskiro wrote...
    Tongue in cheek
    October 15, 2011 3:00 pm
    Dear Mr. Gardner, Thank you for your earnest response. However, while I may have plenty of insecurities and foibles (that I am all too guilty to , this post was written wholly tongue in cheek to parody myself and those of us who admittedly spend too much time and reveal probably way too much of us on Facebook. I will strive to be less nuanced in my humor so as to not confuse anyone into thinking I am belittling anyone (except myself.) Feel free to friend me on Facebook...
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