The issue you address was not the issue I was addressing, so I take a step back.

That's fair. I've gone way wild on the blaming and the bashing in the comment you replied to. Writing past bedtime, when I get tired and grumpy, was not a good idea. I apologize for the dissent of the discourse.

This comment was in the context of kids going to college.

This is not reality for me. I can't vouch for the whole of Russia - I can imagine, for example, Moscow or Saint Petersburg having similar practices due to economical advantage - but in Western Siberia and further to the east, such connectedness is not the case. As students, we are to learn how to operate a computer and the basic stuff there - office software, library databases, stuff like that - as well as, occasionally, partake in online-only homework (which I've totally forgotten about because I don't take part in the class), but this is it.

Neither is reality for me the fact that you have to work so much online as a farmer. In fact, it's hard for me to believe you get to - or have to, from how you put it - work in such interconnected conditions. In Russia, farming is done very much offline; as they call it, "by the old ways". You want parts for your tractor? You go to the shop and buy or order them. You want seeds? You go to the shop and buy or order them. You want weather forecast and warning? You have radio, cell phones and neighbourhood. Even if the last two don't work for you, as per your example, you still have radio, which doesn't require any lines but the electric one, and that's done with diesel engines if you don't have the connection (which, given how communitized our gardening is, you most likely do). So on. What you describe sounds more like sci-fi to me.

Where you live looks like it is way out in the middle of nowhere, yet is still a modern connected city.

Your middle of nowhere is nowhere near my middle of nowhere. You'll be surprised how well people are doing without the gimmicks like Wi-FI and GPS in Russia, be it city, town, village or a secluded little house in the woods. This kind of living is where I draw my conclusions from, and while effortsome, it's far from impossible, given how 70-year-old women can survive on their own in the harsh Siberian winter.

while being on the lookout for the dangers of 'hug boxes' exclusions and the other darker parts of the human experience.

Can you expand on those darker parts? I never heard of hug boxes before you've mentioned it. Links to the articles alone would be fine.