Agreed, I believe their caution on cell phones and the internet is due to the fact it enables people to be farther away. Without the internet, I doubt I would h

Agreed, I believe their caution on cell phones and the internet is due to the fact it enables people to be farther away. Without the internet, I doubt I would have emigrated to a country ~6,000km from my family and without phones I doubt my in-laws would have migrated ~1,500km away from theirs. My own parents moved away from their family, but a lack of technology wouldn't have stopped that one. I believe cell phones and the internet haven't helped with community cohesion, or even family cohesion. I do believe it has enabled people to not settle with the "well that's all we have", which where I grew up was the de-facto response to a lot of things. Abysmal job opportunities, abysmal urban environment/quality, the only opportunities for pretty much everything was on the other side of the country. The majority of people I knew left their families behind, those that didn't were already stuck in the "well that's all we have" attitude. The Amish have the attitude of making their own opportunities, so I believe cell phones and the internet could truly hurt their community how they have chosen to make it. Where I grew up opportunities weren't made by the local community, it had a disgusting unemployment rate (this wasn't because of seasonal work mind you, this was simply due to people refusing to work) and I personally enjoy working. If my community had made opportunities, something would have likely attracted my attention before the 'outside' did.