The Simple Life: 24 Britons will swap modern life to live on an Amish farm for SIX months – Daily Mail
For many it would be challenging to go even 24 hours without a smartphone or any other form of technology including mains electricity and gas. But six months?
That’s the prospect facing 24 Britons who have headed to Ohio in the US to live with an Amish family-of-five on a 40-acre farm – who have chosen to disregard the majority of modern values.
The group of participants – including a social media content creator, a rapper, a former soldier, and a gay couple with two adopted children – are tasked with working the farm without the aid of machinery.
They are being monitored by psychologist Barry Schwartz and a team of scientists for a six-part Channel 4 series called The Simple Life which is currently being recorded and will air early next year. Their return to normal life after six months will also be followed by camera crews.
The group – including a social media content creator, a rapper, a former soldier, and a gay couple with two adopted children – will work the farm without the aid of machinery (pictured)
While the farm is complete with a lake and a wood, the participants are expected to take trips to the local town by horse and cart.
There, they will pick up supplies and trade or sell results of the cottage industries they have started.
They are also faced with having to raise a barn and build a pig ark for the impending arrival of their livestock in addition to harvesting over three acres of hay – all in the traditional Amish way.
The documentary aims to explore whether modern life is bad for us.
The participants are faced with having to raise a barn and build a pig ark for the impending arrival of their livestock in addition to harvesting over three acres of hay – all in the traditional Amish way
The applicants were chosen after Channel 4 took to TikTok and asked members of the public: ‘Are you dreaming of a holiday from the real world? An escape from scary news and social media? A simple life?’
Will there be a positive impact on the mental and physical health of those taking part or is there a desperate need to get back to their consumerist packed lifestyles?
The Amish are a traditionalist Christian group who eschew the trappings of modern life, placing importance on self-sufficiency and community.
The applicants were chosen after Channel 4 took to TikTok and asked members of the public: ‘Are you dreaming of a holiday from the real world? An escape from scary news and social media? A simple life?’
‘Channel 4 is looking for families, couples and singles of all ages…Who would like to live a simpler life for a number of months in 2021.’
Gilly Greenslade, of Channel 4, said she hopes the show will help the volunteers to ‘re-evaluate what matters in life’.
Stephen Day, Executive Producer added: ‘This is an extraordinary chance to cast aside technology, social media, credit cards, fashion, news – almost everything that defies modern life – and to see what that does to us and how that makes us feel.’