TechMan grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country and has had a lifelong interest in the Amish and how people view them.

It is a misconception that the Amish are Luddites who spurn all technology. Instead, the Amish accurately have been described as "masters of selective technology practice."

The Amish do use modern devices from kick scooters and inline skates to disposable diapers and gas barbecues.

They take full advantage of modern medicine. In fact, where I grew up, the local hospital has a parking space for buggies.

When I was a boy, my dentist told me about Amish farmers who would have him pull an abscessed tooth without novocaine. "Because they didn't believe in it?" I asked. "No, because it cost extra," he said. The Plain People are known for being frugal.

For the Amish, life is about family, community and, above all, religion. They are a closed society and believe that the outside world is filled with temptation that can be resisted only by isolating themselves.

Religious rules called Ordnung promote Christian precepts of humility and a simple life and dictate the acceptable uses of technology. But Ordnung do change.

When the telephone first appeared, there wasn't a problem until two Amish women were overheard gossiping on a party line. As soon as telephones were seen as encouraging gossip and interrupting family conversation, the leaders of the church changed the Ordnung to ban them.

The role of the phone was the principal issue in the 1920s upheaval in the Amish church, when one-fifth of the membership broke away.

As farmland became more dear and many Amish had to turn to nonagricultural businesses to survive, they realized that telephones were needed to conduct business. Many Amish families now have business phones and share "phone shanties" in the fields. But phones still are not permitted in the home.

The Amish live "off the grid," but do use some electricity.

When the state ruled that the Amish could not sell their milk unless it was constantly stirred, which had to be done by machine, a change in the Ordnung allowed use of electricity produced by batteries or generators. Even this power is limited to specific purposes, such as electric fences, welding, milk-stirring machines and, in some cases, refrigeration.

The Amish reason that, by maintaining the ban on hooking up to "public" power and not having 110-volt current easily available, they are not tempted to adopt appliances that encourage laziness and electronic media, that could import disruptive ideas.

Amish are allowed to ride in cars but not drive or own them. Church leaders have ruled that to own a car would promote frequent travel away from the community and could cause "pridefulness" over having a better car than neighbors.

In a good example of how rules can be honed to a fine edge, you will sometimes see a black car with all its chrome painted black. The owner is a member of the "black bumper Mennonites," the common name for a sect that allows cars, but forbids showy colors or "fancy" chrome trim.

While the outside world welcomes the power of technology to break down the barriers between communities and promote reaching out to a wider world, that is precisely what the Amish fear. Their lives are about preserving their religion-dictated lifestyle.

Perhaps we could take a lesson about being selective in using technology.