
The Facebook-Loving Farmers of Myanmar - robinsloan
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/the-facebook-loving-farmers-of-myanmar/424812/?single_page=true
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robinsloan
How people actually use technology, part XXXIV:

> But Facebook is most popular? Yes. Everyone wants? Everyone. Do people have
> email addresses? No. He makes the email addresses. Has a stack of pre-made
> Facebook accounts at the ready. He pre-installs the app and pre-loads
> friends. Facebook is for news, he says. Popular now but maybe not popular in
> six months. But for now, he installs it on every phone.

Furthermore:

> The Farmers don’t use their real names (“I used my son’s name,” Farmer
> fourteen told us. Why? “Because it’s a good name!” he said smiling and
> patting his 1-year-old son on the head.) They don’t have email addresses and
> so often don’t know their logins. If they get logged out they have
> someone—often the village Facebook guru—make them a new account.

:-O

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potatote
I am from Myanmar and my mom still lives there. My mom, in her late 50s, uses
facebook everyday and I actually set up an account for her a few years back
(opened a gmail for that, but my mom never checks her gmail, so she's entirely
reliant on me to retrieve her account info if she changes/loses her phone).

Facebook certainly is the king of mobile and social in Myanmar at the moment
(another popular app is Viber). All my friends from high school and older
people of my relatives have fb accounts. That got me thinking how in the world
they set up or use facebook whereas a majority of them don't even use/have
emails. Now, this article explains it all. :) It's fascinating that people in
my country (at least in my social circle) care very little about securing
their account because for them, facebook accounts are dispensable/replaceable.

~~~
randycupertino
"My mom, in her late 50s, uses facebook everyday and I actually set up an
account for her a few years back (opened a gmail for that, but my mom never
checks her gmail, so she's entirely reliant on me to retrieve her account info
if she changes/loses her phone)."

heh... I do the same exact thing for my mom, except she doesn't live in
Myanmar, she's in Flordia.

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msoad
They buy data in 25MB packages and we put a 3x icon in the app that is like
2MB! I'm feeling guilty for ignoring people with such limited access to data
when I make apps and websites! :(

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ZoeZoeBee
You most likely know it as Myanmar, but it will always be Burma to me. Bonne
chance, Elaine. You there on the motorbike! Sell me one of your melons!

