Chapter 2 Better Off

In the second chapter we really get a glimpse of what is in store for Eric and Mary. After hearing about Eric’s decision to find an Amish community and spend 18 months with them, I could only imagine what they were about to get themselves into. I also started to ponder the excitement that one would go through by knowing you were about to give up everything that you were once accustomed to and learn to survive another way. Unfortunately, it did not take that long for me to snap out of this dream when I thought about not being able to watch Monday night football.

During the second chapter, Eric starts to get his feet wet within Amish life. I found it really funny about the whole lawn cutting experience. Especially when he found out that the women are the ones who do this chore. A lesson was learned in this experience, with the fact that it isn’t always how strong or tuff you are in order to get a job done. It taught that when you use mental skills to do the same job there is a chance it becomes easier to do. Like when Eric learned how to adjust the blades on the manual lawn mower. Before he had to use brut force to cut the lawn and once he learned how to adjust the blades, cutting the lawn was like cutting through butter.

All in all, Eric and Mary seemed to be very excited and pleased with everything that is going on. They also seemed to be building a nice relationship with the Miller’s, whom seem to be a pretty close family. At the end of the chapter, I am starting to see how it isn’t only the machine that can get things done, but rather it is human interaction that makes one part a whole.

Chapter 1 Better Off

In the first Chapter I found myself agreeing with the author a lot about his optimism and infatuation with technology. I too have the same curiousness about technology and I could not imagine life without it. Reading through the first chapter, I really like the way the author started off with different instances in his childhood and his outlook of technology. This set me up because in the middle of the chapter he slowly started changing his mind about technology and at then decided to go for the extreme to find answers. I feel technology has been a great benefit to our society as well as creating some strong negative side effects. The younger generations are obsessed with video games and TV. Instead of playing sports, a lot of young kids would rather stay inside and play Halo 3 all day long. Just think about it, we rely on technology on a daily basis. I hate to say it, but I have met a lot of women that couldn’t cook a full course meal to save their lives if it wasn’t for a microwave and pre-cooked food. On the other hand, imagine what would happen if someone were to take away our cell phones. We probably wouldn’t be able to function. Even in manual labor tasks, like in professor Keniston’s case with moving the heavy rocks. I couldn’t imagine not using a backhoe for that work.

The author seems to be driven by the use of technology and human beings. He stated that it wasn’t technology he was after, but the attitude of indiscriminate license, a bias in favor of machines over the interest of human beings. So I guess this is where we are headed, on a mission to reveal the true answer hoping to find it where such things as modern technology do not exist.