What stuck out for me was the bit about farmers in Myanmar playing Clash of Clans. This is something I noticed when I was in South Korea for work a few years ago, everyone was constantly playing CoC and similar games. Of course these are very different countries, but I wonder if there's a cultural factor at play that makes these games popular in East Asia? I live in a developing country but I never see people playing games on public transportation, usually people browse Facebook or Instagram or whatever.
As for the rest of the article, `echo "0.0.0.0 twitter.com" >> /etc/hosts` works for me.
Families I know in India 10-ish years ago used to be against the whole technology wave and were concerned with the effects of electronics. Now that they have gotten their hands on smartphones and other devices: oh man they will put the American stereotype of being obsessed with the screen to shame. 24/7 Whatsapp, Instagram, and mobile games. They will come to the same realization as we are though. Just a matter of time.
It isn't just the phone. We as a species seem to be mesmerized by visual screen-based media of any kind. For example, here's an article about a Russian family that retreated deep into uninhabited parts of Siberia during the Stalin years and lived a Middle Ages lifestyle until they were discovered in 1978:
>> "Karp Lykov fought a long and losing battle with himself to keep all this modernity at bay. When they first got to know the geologists, the family would accept only a single gift—salt. Over time, however, they began to take more. They took knives, forks, handles, grain and eventually even pen and paper and an electric torch. Most of these innovations were only grudgingly acknowledged, but the sin of television, which they encountered at the geologists’ camp,proved irresistible for them…. On their rare appearances, they would invariably sit down and watch. Karp sat directly in front of the screen. Agafia watched poking her head from behind a door. She tried to pray away her transgression immediately—whispering, crossing herself…." <<
As for the rest of the article, `echo "0.0.0.0 twitter.com" >> /etc/hosts` works for me.