Elvira Kadyrova, Raviliya Kadyrova, Tamir Shakirov
There is an even bigger transformation behind the smartphone.
It is the transformation from a world in which information had to be found to one in which information is constantly available.
For someone who grew up before the internet, this change is difficult to explain to younger people.
Suppose you wanted to know something in 1995.
You might ask somebody.
You might consult an encyclopedia.
You might search through books.
You might visit a library.
You might write a letter.
Or you might simply decide that the information was not important enough to pursue.
Today, the same question can often be answered in seconds.
The internet has therefore changed more than communication.
It has changed people’s relationship with knowledge.
Turkmenistan’s digital transformation has been gradual and has its limitations. Internet access remains less widespread than in many countries. But the direction of change is unmistakable.
DataReportal estimated that Turkmenistan had approximately 3.53 million internet users at the end of 2025, equivalent to 46.1 percent of the population. Its estimate put the number of internet users about 196,000 higher than a year earlier.
Whatever the limitations surrounding those figures, they demonstrate something that would have been almost unimaginable in 1995: millions of people have become internet users.
That changes everyday life in ways that are difficult to capture in conventional statistics.
A student can search for information about a subject.
A young person can discover music from another country.
A traveller can research a destination before leaving home.
A businessperson can examine a potential market.
A person interested in cooking can find a recipe.
Someone repairing an appliance can search for instructions.
A professional can follow developments in his or her field.
A family can communicate with relatives living abroad.
The internet has made the world smaller without physically moving anybody.
And this is where the story becomes more interesting than a simple technology narrative.
The most important change is not that people can access websites.
It is that people can increasingly compare their own experience with the experiences of people elsewhere.
They can see how others cook, dress, travel, study, work, exercise and entertain themselves.
That inevitably changes expectations.
A teenager who sees a new sport online may want to try it.
Someone who discovers an unfamiliar food may look for it in a local shop.
A person interested in fashion can see trends that previously might have taken months or years to reach the country.
A small business can see how companies elsewhere present themselves.
The internet therefore becomes a mechanism through which ideas travel.
That is one reason the transformation is so significant.
Earlier generations were not necessarily less curious. They simply faced much higher barriers to satisfying curiosity.
The cost of information has fallen dramatically.
A library book had to be found.
An international magazine had to arrive.
A foreign television programme had to be broadcast.
An expert had to be contacted.
Today, a search engine can perform the first step almost instantly.
There is an important qualification, of course.
Internet penetration remains in progress, and access and online experience in Turkmenistan are still growing toward universal connectivity.
But this should not obscure the historical transformation already obtained.
In 1995, the internet was not part of the ordinary Turkmen household experience.
In 2026, millions of people use it.
That is a profound change in only one generation.
Perhaps the best way to understand it is this:
Thirty-five years ago, the world had to come to you—through books, newspapers, television, visitors and travel.
Today, increasingly, you can reach the world yourself.
That is not merely technological progress.
It is an expansion of the horizon of everyday life. /// nCa, 16 September 2026