Your words may be true for for western civilization but in Afghanistan they GOT NUTTIN’ I mean , really, nothinh!
You think everybody goes out to the movies when they want or go bowling or jogging or just have a good old time with friends at home sitting down with a beer or two?
You are seriously misinformed about life in Afghanistan.I suggest you start watching some documentaries independently filmed.Many you find on YTube and many under the travel section by those c who secured a precious visa to go in and report on the latest.
Taking away cell phones is the latest move made by complete idiots who do not understand anything but the implementation of even stricter prohibitions in the name of Islam .I remind you ,in the name of islam, not their “ god”.
Taking away cell phones in this manner and within the sector of these particular occupations seriously undermines the advancement of ANY type of social, technological and economic progress thete.
Let me tell you a little story... women aren’t allowed out even to shop w/o a male escort but I have seen women f together going to the market.I can’t find the reason for that.But generally speaking women are to remain home. Many Phave been seen looking out their windows on daily goings-on.
It was noticed by many religious zealots so an edict came down.
BRICK UP YOUR WINDOWS! It was duly noted and those households where women where seen to have been looking out their windows? Windows no more.
Personally, I don’t have a smart phone.I keep a low tech profile and use a flip fone for out going long distance calls.I have a landline which is for local calls only.
Your extremely one-sided tunnel visioned statement about phones may be true but it certainly doesn’t apply to Afghanistan but they need phones for social infrastructure.Its also undesirable their govt m may seevthem as hostile tech and subversive to islam.
https://ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-media
In all of the world, even in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Ukraine, you have the power of “social media,” and nowhere is it just people kicking back having beers and going jogging, not even in the US.
It is an intel manipulated (Arab Spring / Ukraine election of Mr. Z), used for collection, highly censored (in those nations that can control such (China, Russia and yes the US) world. In this world there are just a few people like Mark Zuckerberg that are extremely biased BUT control the message in the West. They are so influential in the information domain that they can literally shut down a sitting president: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/trump-twitter-ban/ (turn him off like a switch)
People are mesmerized / entertained by the constant flow of bullshit, with idiotic video’s, but it serves in the background for collection, organization by groups, communications, dissemination of mass information, as well as perception management (perfect example Ukraine and this war - massive information operations).
—Collection: A treasure drove of information on people, their locations, facilities, their movements, associations, interests, how they look...
—Organization by groups: Used to allow dissident groups, militia’s etc. to organize, for example, in Ukraine we looked the other way even as flat out Nazi’s were using these platforms: https://time.com/5926750/azov-far-right-movement-facebook/
—Communications: Through social media you get a lot of the communications between assets and their handlers, often through something innocuous as Amazon.
—Perception management: You today actually have legions that write articles and pump them over the web pushing a narrative.
Case study (1): The Arab Spring was largely promoted and organized using social media:
https://www.iemed.org/publication/social-media-and-politics-and-the-arab-spring-moment/
https://www.washington.edu/news/2011/09/12/new-study-quantifies-use-of-social-media-in-arab-spring/
Case study (2): Mr. Z was elected in Ukraine and social media played an extremely important role in this. Those are facts. It is also a fact that especially outside the US, our social media and Google (an NSA creation) works hand in glove with the IC. You figure out the rest.
https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/events/the-zelensky-phenomenon-youth-social-media-and-democratic-dialogues-in-ukraine?division=public-affairs&eventslug=the-zelensky-phenomenon-youth-social-media-and-democratic-dialogues-in-ukraine Interestingly, while there have been seminars on this topic of social media’s influence on the election of Mr. Z, no one asks if possibly a search engine created by an intelligence agency that heavily manipulates searches, and a social media known for working with the US IC abroad may have been part of a greater campaign to get him elected.
Googles birth: https://qz.com/1145669/googles-true-origin-partly-lies-in-cia-and-nsa-research-grants-for-mass-surveillance
The Internet has been part of the “battle-space” for a long time.
—Why do you think we provided Iran with all those Star-link terminals, because we want them to have access to porn, or kick back with two beers as you claim?
—Why do you think Iran really tries to block a lot of the stuff, because of some porn video? Do you really think that’s the reason?
Afghanistan is no different. These apes are still in the stone-age and they’ll have a hard time controlling it, but they know what is going on even if they lack the technical means to mitigate the threat. The only answer they end up with is highly limiting and restricting its use...
This isn’t 1995 anymore. The Internet isn’t this free and open world and instead has become an orgy of corporate and government interests in the background while you watch a video kicking back with two beers. LOL