LANCASTER, Pa. — Kate's like a lot of American teenagers. She likes country music. She lists her favorite TV shows as "One Tree Hill" and "Friday Night Lights." And she's on Facebook, with more than 200 Facebook "friends."
And yet, Kate differs considerably from most other American teenagers on Facebook in one key respect:
She is — or at least, by her mode of dress, appears to be — Amish.
And she's part of what appears to be a growing — and, inside the Amish community, a worrisome — trend.
There are no statistics to show how many Amish are on Facebook, the social networking site used by an estimated 500 million people worldwide. But some, in a community that shuns electricity in their homes, won't buy cars and maintains traditional garb, say the number of Plain kids using Facebook — often logging on via their cell phones — appears to be increasing.
There may be as many as several hundred Amish youth from Lancaster County on Facebook. Few if any identify themselves as Amish, though some are identifiable by their dress — profile pictures feature girls in plain dresses and head coverings. And in many cases, Amish kids are Facebook "friends" only with other Amish kids.
Few if any want to talk about their social media habits. After teens with Amish-sounding names were noted among those who "like" Lancaster Newspapers' website, Lancasteronline.com, on Facebook, the Sunday News sent messages to nearly two dozen youths who appeared, by their Facebook profiles, to be Amish. None responded.
"They're not going to talk to you," said one Amish woman, who runs a fruit stand near Gap. "They're not supposed to be doing that. They'll get in trouble."
She estimated that "1 to 2 percent" of Amish youth use Facebook. Amish adults, she said, are aware that it's happening — though ministers and bishops, she said, probably don't know to what extent it's being used.
"The kids have cell phones," she said. "Their parents don't really know what they're doing — they've never been on Facebook."
At the same time, some who study Amish culture say they're not surprised by the apparent trend.
Erik Wesner, an author who runs a blog called "Amish America," said he corresponds with many Amish via e-mail. Typically, he said, e-mail is justified as a business concession.
"Some might be business owners or may work for non-Amish employers and have duties that require them to be online and have an account," said Wesner, a former Snowden Fellow at the Young Center for Anabaptist & Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.
"However, that of course also permits personal correspondence, and it is difficult to draw a line between the two even if you wanted to," he said. "The leap to Facebook is conceptually a small one, especially when a business Facebook account opens the door to a personal one."
The Amish slowly, sometimes surreptitiously, adopt new technologies. A century ago, Amish bishops — who set the boundaries for what is and what isn't permissible for their congregations — forbade phone ownership. Eventually, they permitted groups of Amish to install "community phones" in "phone shacks" outside homes. Then some of them allowed phones inside businesses.
"The majority of Amish businesses have cell phones, and business people outnumber farmers in Lancaster County," an Amish harness manufacturer told the Lancaster New Era in 2007. "Cell phones are here to stay."
And some Amish-owned businesses have websites. In May, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review newspaper profiled 10 Amish families in Clarion County that formed an organic growers' cooperative, and are using Facebook to help market its food.
Amish people "have a much greater understanding of technology and the outside world than many outsiders may realize," said Dr. Donald Kraybill, senior fellow at the Young Center at Elizabethtown College. It's important to note the diversity within the Amish community, he stressed.
"The Lancaster settlement has about 185 local congregations, which vary somewhat in their practices and their use of and openness to online media," he said. And while he doubts that the relatively small number of Amish youth who have accounts on Facebook are in any way typical or normative, "they likely do represent a small, marginal sector of the Amish youth culture in the Lancaster settlement."
Dr. Steve Nolt, history professor at Goshen College in Indiana, and author or co-author of nine books on Amish and Mennonite culture, noted that many of the Lancaster-area youth on Facebook who appear to be Amish are only "friends" with other Amish kids. "In that sense, it serves (as) an insulating social network — one more way that Amish youth socialize only with other Amish youth — rather than a means of expanding Amish social circles," Nolt said.
Reactions within the Amish community are mixed. Some say it's not such a big deal: Kraybill said he spoke with one Old Order Amish father who told him that while some kids have cell phones and maybe are on Facebook, "Don't worry, Amish kids are only as involved as they want to be. Many are making good choices to stay away, even though they could get Facebook. And those do not feel left behind."
Among others, there's a sense of alarm. "This is something no proper Amish would endorse," said one local Amishman, who asked that the newspaper treat the issue gently. "Kids can get themselves in trouble. If your child was doing something you didn't want him to do, you wouldn't want to see it put in the newspaper."
Still, the Amishman said, Amish youth have always been attracted to new technologies and trends. "When automobiles came out, some Amish rode in automobiles," he said. "When Rollerblades became popular, some Amish Rollerbladed. Most anything that comes along, some Amish kids will pick it up."
Kraybill noted that many of the teens on Facebook who appear to be Amish are of "rumspringa" age — that time before they join the church, when many experiment with behavior such as driving cars or dressing "English."
Several have photos of themselves in traditional garb as well as in "English" dress on their Facebook pages. The photos themselves may seem a leap for Old Order Amish, many of whom refuse to carry photo identification because they regard photographs as violating the second of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."
But, noted Kraybill, "Remember that unbaptized youth are not members of the church. Moreover, some of them have cell phones with built-in cameras. Formal regulations including those on photos would apply more stringently to members.
"Also remember that many of the youth on (Facebook) are on the margins, not mainstream Amish youth," he said. Sources were split on how much Amish church authorities know about Amish kids on Facebook.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the bishops would speak against this if they were aware of it," said one local Mennonite businessman with extensive contacts in the Amish community.
"They certainly have taken a general position against this type of public display. My guess is that the young people will not be very happy with you if you disclose this in the newspaper since it will, no doubt, cause the leaders to take a stand against it," he said.
The Amishwoman at the stand near Gap said one local minister actually did preach against Facebook in recent weeks. Others, she said, are vaguely worried, aware that it's happening but unsure how many are involved. And they're also hampered by the fact that many older Amishmen and women simply don't know what Facebook is.
She agrees with the Mennonite businessman that church authorities, as their knowledge about the trend increases, will take a strong stand against it.
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