I made the same observation about chasidic Jews. On first glance, their engagement with technology may seem backwards (eg, still on feature phones?) but as time goes on we're seeing those choices pan out right (eg - people who go on tech detoxes, etc - something you never need to do when you're chasidic or amish.)

I would say the thing that's missing from "our" society is a compass. What is it that we want to be, what do we value the most, etc? You begin by knowing those answers, and then you can evaluate whether technology helps or hurts you.

For example -- almost everyone says "we value family." But the chasidim and the amish express that by living close to their family, while "a typical American" moves far away from home and then has to rely on FaceTime and WhatsApp. The reason we have this problem is because we value something else above family (or community) -- that may be novelty, work opportunities, etc. But mainly, I think it's because we've become quite a bit untethered.

Society has moved pretty far away from religious and traditional values in the past few decades, and hasn't replaced them with anything (certainly not anything better.) So while a chasid or amish person can look at TikToc and say "that's just going to take me away from my family/spiritual work and therefore I don't want that" - we in secular society are confused about our trade-offs.