Drinking! Selfies! Using abbreviated words and emoji to communicate thoughts via text message! If you're an Amish adolescent between the ages of 14 and 16, chances are you are engaging in these activities because, chances are, you are knee deep in your Rumspringa. For the Amish, Rumspringa, which literally translates to "running around," is a period of time when young Amish temporarily cast off their strict rules and traditions and are permitted to experience life outside the cloistered community. Once all the sexting is out of their system, the teens elect to either accept Baptism and rejoin their community, or, in very rare cases, leave forever.

Rumspringa today, though, isn't just about experimenting with bikinis and getting hammered on purple Fadeorade (no hangovers even! So much B-12). Today Rumspringin is all about the internet. And texting, naturally. Buzzfeed's Justine Sharrock explains:

They use tech and social networking with purpose bordering on urgency. When I asked Noah [a 22-year-old who recently left the Amish] what’s different about how the Amish use Facebook, he suggested that they use it more so than non-Amish do. It’s critical for a Rumspringa social life.

These Rumspringans (?) are ready to get fucked. Just kidding, sort of. But they are ready to party. They have descended on dating sites like Meetme.com and Facebook in droves. It's the easiest way to share their new experiences—new clothes, new haircuts, new Christian memes—outside the community, but it's also the best way to connect with other young Amish also on their Rumspringas. Even when they're running around getting weird, the Amish tend to cavort with other Amish only. Social networking allows them to do that.

One particularly visible result of Rumpsringa is massive parties, which draw Amish teens from multiple states. Texting has made them even bigger, and easier to coordinate. “They network like only Amish people can,” says Chris Weber, who counsels Amish teens about drug and alcohol abuse. “We used to have parties, but it was not this easy to find them. Now it doesn’t take long to set it up and 700 kids show up. Everyone is connected, everyone is texting everyone.”

I hope at least one of them has texted a friend, "More like LOLspringa."

And the other texted back, "Baptism? Eh. Ima join the PEN15 club ;) instead."

[Buzzfeed, images via Facebook]