this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
105 points (97.3% liked)

Today I Learned

23013 readers
818 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I lived just around the corner when Cyberia, definitely the UK's and possibly the world's first ever internet café, opened in 1994. (Naturally, a couple other places have since put in claims they opened first.)

Reading an article today about the founding of Cyberia, I saw this:

And then there was the Amish community in Pennsylvania. Eva had to fly out there to negotiate for the “Cyberia.com” domain name they had bought. “It was a proper barn with horse carts and a wall of modems as they were running a bulletin board and an early ecommerce company. Apparently, there was always one family nominated to be the tech support,” she remembers.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/worlds-first-ever-cyber-cafe-cyberia-london/

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (13 children)

I'm skeptical. Amish have a pretty strong aversion to technology. My guess it was Beachy Amish (which is actually Mennonite) or Old Order Mennonite.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I lived near Lancaster, where the Amish predominantly live. Can confirm it was more likely to have been as you suggested. Once bought a German Shepherd from some Amish and they had no technology that I could see. Whereas, the Mennonite will drive cars, have phones, etc.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m interested to know if this was the case.

Totally secondhand info, but I used to have an ex-Amish friend who told me they often have a small shared outbuilding at the edge of their community that has a phone and a computer with Internet they can use in emergencies. She said some in the community were more liberal about the word ‘emergency’ than others.

(I’m a doofus who literally typed out ‘can any Amish on Lemmy confirm this’ then deleted it, though, so take my words with some salt.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

You can always check out c/amish on Lemmy. They all pitch in with great advice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Oh shit, who knew the Amish had such a presence here and post so frequently?

Thanks, subscribed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

c/amish on Lemmy.

You want !community@instance and it'll make an appropriate link.

[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

In their homes they can’t have technology but go out back to the massive pole barns where they build gazebos and sheds and you’ll see plenty of electric tools and other tech.

Not sure if that would extend to computer tech, though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I should have taken pictures I guess, but I watched an Amish family take their horse and buggy down to the lake. The buggy had a boat trailer attached with an old ski boat (gas motor and all) being pulled. They went out cruising on the lake.

load more comments (9 replies)