The Internet embodies everything the Amish find distasteful: electricity, frivolity, the breakdown of local community, instant Penn State football scores.
So how does the Internet view the Amish? We scanned last week's top 100,000 user queries for references to the peaceful religious sect. The results are below, with each topic's percentage share of the total.
42% Amish
13% Amish furniture
10% Amish people
9% Amish quilts
7% Amish culture
6% Mennonites
6% Amish friendship bread
4% Luddite
3% Pennsylvania Dutch
The Amish, it turns out, are a fairly hot topic online. For comparison, the word Amish got the same number of searches as American Bar Association, used computers, or Marie Curie. And amazingly, the Amish had more searches than many other religions, including the Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Christian Scientists. (Of course, since when do the Methodists make great quilts?)
On the other hand, the top 100,000 searches didn't include horse and buggy or butter churns. A few hundred people a week search for barn plans, which seems like a cheerfully pro-Amish sign. However, that's only a fraction of the number who search for Pottery Barn. (Score one for civilization.)
And in case you're wondering: Witness didn't make our top 100,000 list either. The film's two stars did: queries for Harrison Ford would have put him at about 26% on the Amish list above, while Kelly McGillis would have ranked about 8%.
Now, who would have guessed Harrison Ford would get 40% fewer searches than the Amish?
Note: all search spellings and variations are included in each item's total; for instance, the Amish quilts entry includes searches for both Amish quilt and Amish quilts. This list reflects actual terms entered into our search engine by Lycos users during the week ending April 2nd; it does not imply endorsement by Lycos of any belief or lifestyle. Please do not base your own religious experience on this list.
