networks

Synthetic influencers are already selling in the thousands. A startup offers them as a service to manipulate networks

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Influencer accounts created by AI are already a reality, some even have hundreds of thousands of followers. There is a startup that has taken this idea to the next level: they create and manage synthetic influencers to orchestrate massive actions on different platforms, all using AI. Their website reads “Never pay a human again”, a true declaration of intent. Doublespeed. It is the name of the startup that offers the service. Using AI, they create the accounts of these fake influencers and also the content, all with minimal human intervention, just a few finishing touches. Its goal is to “orchestrate actions on thousands of social accounts through the creation and massive deployment of content.” They count in 404media that the startup is financed by the Andreessen Horowitzone of the most important venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Make it look human. The platforms have systems to detect bots, but at Doublespeed they have the solution to make their AI influencers appear human to the algorithms. In addition, the accounts they offer have been used, since newly created accounts with hardly any interactions are easier to detect as bots. The company’s co-founder, Zuhair Lakhani, said in a podcast that use a “mobile farm” (like the click farms) to manage all their accounts and boasted that one client got almost 5 million views in less than a month with 15 of these AI influencers. Raising the level. He astroturfing It is a tactic through which artificial opinions are generated that seek to appear real and spontaneous, all in order to give an impression of support (or rejection) of a topic or product. What Doublespeed does is next level, creating not only the message, but the “persona” who spreads it. Doublespeed sells “packs” between $1,500 and $7,500, depending on the number of posts they want to generate. Cons the rules. The point is that this practice goes against the rules of the main platforms, such as Meta, which they expressly say that accounts that “make a misleading representation of identity to deceive or confuse people” will not be allowed. It is not the first company to offer services of this type, What is striking is that it has one of the largest funds in the world behind it. dead internet. Is a conspiracy theory which says that the internet is full of bots and humans have been replaced by algorithms. There is some truth in it. According to the cybersecurity company Imperva, in 2024 more than half of internet traffic was non-human. With the emergence of AI, networks were flooded with AI Slop and now it also comes in the form of fake influencers. Image | Reshma Mallecha, Pexels In Xataka | The more we know about the evolution of the internet, the closer we come to a conclusion: bots can kill it

Spain has more and more problems with the drought and criminal networks have begun to realize it

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This story begins with a civil guard couple in civilian clothes chasing a tanker truck. They have been following trucks for months, they have checked thousands of livestock farms and, finally, they are about to find something. With 50 million liters of something. The initial track. More than a hundred residents of a district of Lorca denounced last year that there was an entire network selling water tanks to supply agricultural operations. It is nothing new: the Civil Guard has numerous investigations underway into the inspection and control of water use. Therefore, SEPRONA started to investigate the matter. And what have they found? The surveillance device located the tanker truck filling point: it was a well without authorizations for use and without a volumetric counter or any other type of measuring instrument. It seemed difficult to know the number of liters extracted. However, as the company pretended to be legitimate, the Civil Guard has been able to document that, during the last 18 months, 56 million liters of water had been sold for a value of at least 275,000 euros. This is only in the last 18 months: the armed institute believes that the illegal use of the well may have lasted several decades. Just one case out of a million. Over the last few years We have been talking about dozens of people investigated, detained and convicted due to illegal irrigation: in 2023 alone, hundreds of millions of cubic meters of water have been extracted illegally. The problem is real: so real that the Malaga water company has even hired private detectives to monitor employees, suppliers and customers. However, the key to this is not what has already happened. The key is what is going to happen. The list of threats is enormous. Climate change, overexploitation of aquifers, intensive agriculture, inadequate water management, forest fires, deforestation and population growth… Spain has a problem with water and that problem is not going to stop growing and growing. In this context, robberies are going to become more frequent and common. And that’s saying a lot: according to WWFthere are more than 500,000 illegal wells. But no one can be surprised. After all, there is a high financial incentive and relatively low penalties. Most cases they end, in fact, in fines and that is an excellent breeding ground for a huge problem. Image | VD Photography | Elentir In Xataka | Spain is facing a brutal drought and there are farmers watering avocados irregularly. A prosecutor wants it to be a crime

Social networks began to die in 2022 and nobody realized. The new nightmare is that they resurge

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Social networks were wonderful until they stopped being. Very soon they became not only a problem almost addictionbut also of health. Anxiety levels shot And they were made frequent the Sexting cases either Bullying Through these platforms. The funny thing is that while all that happened and we thought that its use was increasingly worrying, something happened. People began to stop using them (both). Social networks had their peak in 2022. An ambitious study conducted By Financial Times He recently revealed the current state of social networks. More than 250,000 adults in more than 50 countries talked about their online habits, and in that data it is clear that the apogee of social networks occurred in 2022. Since then there has been a turning point. Especially for a specific sector of the population. Young people get tired of Facebook. Among the different demographic sectors, there is an especially striking one: young people between 16 and 24 are the ones who are most clearly reducing the time they spend on these platforms. At the end of 2024 they passed average two hours and 20 minutes a day in them, 10% less than what happened in 2022. It is the population segment that is more quickly falling, although the change is clear in the rest of the ages. Other parallel studies, such as Made in Sweden Between 2022 and 2024, he pointed to Clear falls too especially among the youngest. The time we spent on social networks did not stop increasing until 2022. Then the trend changed. Source: Financial Times. The era “zero posts” arrives. Social networks were a day to tell our lives, but From a while to this part the trend is another: “zero posts”. Users publish much less than before, instead of that user community that shared their reflections, the normal thing is now to find an endless commercial showcase. According to recent studies, a third of Spanish Internet users have abandoned some social network in the last year. Robotic consumption. The study data published in FT confirms that phenomenon. According to their conclusions, less and fewer people use social networks to maintain contact with their friends, and that kind of use experience has been decreasing since 2014. instead of what has been seen is that the users of these platforms go to them with the explicit intention of filling holes of time that are empty. Or what is the same: when they get bored consume content, but they don’t share it. Use ceases to be reflective and interactive to be passive, more “robotic”, ironically. The shitting of social networks. The writer Cory Doctorow The term coined long ago “Enshittification“ (“shit”) to talk about how platforms become worse for users. At present, social networks have little social and are dedicated to trying to maximize the time that users are trapped in them. Algorithms have taken control And they immerse us in an echo chamber from which it is difficult to leave. The “Ai Slop” arrives. Before the decline – at least, in time of use – of social networks, the option seems clear: take advantage of the content generated by AI. All to a greater or lesser extent have begun to integrate it progressively, but two new wedges are now added to traditional social networks: Meta Vibes y Openai Sora They are absolutely focused on content generated by AI. It is another era in which interaction and social participation fade and Doomscrolling He seizes more than ever from the user experience. The “AI Slop”the “junk content” generated by AI, begins to flood that experience. And it seems that tactic works. The study, however, gives a worrying fact: the time that Americans spend social networks are growing. It is the only region where it does, because in Europe and Asia-Pacific that consumption is falling slightly from the 2022 peaks. It remains to be seen if those new social networks They end up compensating that fall of the time that users spend on “traditional” social networks. Image | Pexels In Xataka | The exhausted society: how “existential tiredness” has become the great industry of the West

More and more people are stopping publishing things on their social networks

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There was a time when opening Instagram meant to look out to the life of our friends. A smoking coffee under the Valencia filter, a badly framed selfie on the beach or the pet of a colleague yawning. It was an improvised, domestic showcase, a mural of shared banalities that, paradoxically, made us feel closer. As The New Yorker recalledthat “breakfast photo” represented the utopian dream of social networks: that millions of common people could publish fragments of their lives with minimal intervention, from the most trivial to the most intimate, and that that worldly record became something valuable, a “dynamic file of reality from the ground.” More than a decade later, the landscape is another. Yes in 2018 The BBC calculated That about 40% of the world’s population used social networks, dedicating about two hours a day to share, today users are still connected, but less and less willing to show their lives. From vacuum feed. The decrease in the public use of networks is already evident. According to a Morning Consult report28% of Americans publish less than a year ago, compared to 21% that does more. Among generation Z, just 18% admit to posting daily. In a recent article, the BBC has confirmed the trend: One third of users publishes less than before, with a descent specially pronounced among those under 30. And the phenomenon is not limited to the United States. In Spain, Iab Spain has presented the 16th edition of the Social Network Study 2025in collaboration with praise, which confirms a similar wear: 33%of Internet users have abandoned a platform in the last year, especially X (28%) and Facebook (15%), but also Pinterest (15%) or LinkedIn (12%). The main reasons are the lack of use, loss of interest and boredom. The hangover of publishing. This withdrawal has even its own name. National Public Radio (NPR) He has baptized it as Grid Zero, The Instagram phenomenon in which more and more young, especially from the Z gene, erase all their publications and leave their profiles as a “blank canvas.” Adam Mosseri, Chief of Instagram, acknowledges: “Adolescents spend more time in private messages than in stories, and more in stories than in feed.” Instagram itself has detected that young people prefer ephemeral or private interactions. His cultural researcher Kim Garcia has summarized it as follows: “Gen Z has award to permanence and the fingerprint. They do not want their entire personal change process to be publicly exposed.” According to NPRhe Grid Zero It works as an immune system against digital addiction: hide the feed, take refuge in the intimacy of chats or private accounts is a way of protecting. This modesty contrasts with the millennial era. For those who border medium age today, networks were the natural space of the exhibition. The hangover was predictable, as the writer Kyle Chayka has pointed out In an interview with the BBC: “We learned the disadvantages of sharing your life online during the 2010s.” Unless you want to be an influencer, it is no longer worth it: the disadvantages of publishing are too large and the advantages do not reach. ” Privacy and fear of judgment. The FEED blackout responds to different variables, but the first is the need to take refuge in oneself. According to online psychologymany users choose not to publish to protect their privacy, take care of their mental health and avoid risks such as harassment or unnecessary exposure. However, in the case of gene z the phenomenon is more extreme. The nod mag He explained Digital hyperconcience: a simple “like” can be interpreted as a political or identity statement. The fear of cancellation leads many to interact as little as possible. The young Kanika Mehra (24) He has recognized it for The New Yorker: “We are all voyeurs now: we keep looking, but we no longer post, because publishing generates a ram of vulnerability.” To this climate is added the sensation of inadequacy in the midst of global crises. A waitress in Washington has told The New Yorker that he erased some happy selfies because “with everything that happens in the world, I was ashamed to seem frivolous.” From the social to consumption. Beyond personal motivations, there is an undeniable fact: almost everything we see today in networks is consumed. “The platforms have become less social; they look more like television, full of mercantilized content, lifestyle aspirations and advertising,” Chayka has summarized in the BBC. Besides, The New Yorker also coincides: The feeds are dominated by influencers, war headlines, political propaganda, videos generated by AI and “sponcon.” Amateurism, the initial engine of the networks, was replaced by careful production and light rings. And the data are there to confirm it: Morning Consult He has found that more than half of adults (52%) perceive the content of networks as “repetitive and tired.” And the Wall Street Journal He has pointed out that users feel that “the community is no longer there”; Instead, there is an endless commercial showcase. Although it is not an empty network. Silence in the feed does not mean abandonment of the platforms. On the contrary: we remain connected, but we move to more intimate spaces. Mosseri He has recognized it in an interview cited by WSJ: “All sharing between friends is going to direct messages. Today more photos and videos are sent by Stories, and more for stories than by the feed.” The BBC Reaffirms the turn: Personal content “has been oriented towards individual messages and private groups.” In Spain, the IAB Spain study Confirm What WhatsApp is the most used network: 96% of Internet users use it daily. The social did not disappear: he simply hid. Millennials, the new boomers? This hurts, but we enter generational. Millennials – among the ones I included – we grew up exhibiting our online life. Today we appear as the “digital boomers” in the eyes of the gen Z. from the new code They have explained it with irony: Millennial profiles seem outdated, full of poses, … Read more

Connecting to unknown networks can be risky for your personal data. Protecting you don’t cost even 2 euros per month

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It is a reality: cyber attacks have become increasingly common. There is a lot of undesirable loose looking to get sensitive information, whether large companies or a user like us. If we work from home or we usually connect with our network we have a safety layer, but what if we use ourselves A network on which we don’t have any control? The good news is that there are several ways to protect our Internet traffic, wherever we are. The simplest, useful and effective way to do so is to use a VPN, and if we can afford it, better bet on one of payment. In fact, There are very cheap: Surfshark’s barely costs 1.99 euros a month. Protect your traffic and IP with a good VPN As we say, it exists A good variety of free VPNperfect if we need to use something at a timely moment. The problem they have is that, in addition to being little safe, They work limitedly in terms of traffic or speed volume. For this reason, the ideal is to bet on a payment like this Surfshark, which also has a great price. One of the advantages that this has is that We can install it in an unlimited number of devicesideal to take it in the laptop, on the mobile or on the tablet (or everywhere at the same time). With this, we can protect our Internet traffic, thus gaining a greater dose of privacy. Moreover, it also helps us hide our IP, information that is better to keep away from undesirable. Surfshark VPN is included in its Starter Plan, which also comes with another tool called ALTERNATIVE ID. With it, we can create a series of fictitious data to use them on web pages where we do not want to enter our real information. That way, we keep our personal data at a good collection. As we have commented before, for 1.99 euros A month we have a quality VPN. That means that its two -year plan comes out for a total price of 47.76 euros, a fairly affordable price to have this tool with us for a long season. There does not end the thing, because we will also receive three extra monthsin such a way that we will have surfshark for 27 months instead of 24. You may also interest you NORDVPN – Basic Plan (Monthly) * Some price may have changed from the last review Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | Chase Chappell in Unspash In Xataka | In Xataka |

In the twentieth century the pipelines were the key to the world. In the 21st century are the electrical networks and a country is winning them: China

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While a nation installs almost one hundred solar panels per second, another revitalizes factories to produce gasoline engines. While A build the largest solar plant in the worldthe other promises “Dominant Energy” Based on oil and gas. At first glance, two different strategies seem. Actually, it’s a career. And the prize is not just energy: it is the geopolitical power of the 21st century. Two opposing models. An Ember graph published by Our World in Data He has illustrated The point with amazing clarity. At the beginning of the 2000s you can see China’s gradual rebound. However, the crossing occurs in 2010 where the Asian giant exceeds the 4,000 Teravatios-Hora barrier (TWH), to a vertiginous ascent exceeding 10,000 SWH in 2024. In simple terms, China produces more than double electricity than the United States, which remained in the same line. But the most relevant is not how much it produces, but how it does. Data Source: Ember (2025); Energy Institute – Statistical Review of World Energy (2024) The silent revolution. In just one month, China installed 93 gigawatts of solar capacity, which is equivalent – more or less – one hundred panels every second. To that are added another 26 GW in wind, some 5,300 new turbines underway. According to Lauri Myllyvirta, principal researcher at the Institute of Policy of Asian Society, cited by The Guardian: “Only the facilities of that month would generate as much electricity as whole countries such as Poland, Sweden or the United Arab Emirates.” In total, between January and May 2025, China has added 198 GW of solar capacity and 46 GW of wind, sufficient to match the electricity production of Türkiye or Indonesia. This way, Keep overcoming The more than 1,000 GW, which represents half of the world total. They have known how to get ahead. More and more linked climatic ambitions with the growth of renewable technologies. In a recent speech, cited by The GuardianXi Jinping linked the development of the clean energy sector with China’s economic revitalization: “We have built the world’s largest and most complete energy chain in the world.” The term “new energies” includes renewables, batteries and storage technologies. The Asian giant is currently the largest global supplier of clean technologies: the market of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles and nuclear reactors under construction dominates. In addition, it has almost 700,000 patents in clean energy, more than half of the world total, According to The New York Times. The other face. For a good part of the twentieth century, the United States was the reference in energy innovation: from the first commercial solar cells until The first wind farms. However, since Trump’s arrival, the focus It has been placed again strongly towards fossil fuels. According to The New York TimesWashington has pressed allies such as Japan and South Korea to invest billion dollars in American natural gas infrastructure. At the same time, companies such as General Motors have given clear signs of where the wind blows: the company canceled an electric motion plant near Buffalo (New York) to allocate 888 million dollars To manufacture gasoline V-8 engines. Where asymmetry resides. It is not just two different paths, but in world influence. According to Climate Energy Finance datathe companies of the Asian giant have announced more than 168 billion dollars in foreign investments in clean energy projects: from turbines in Brazil to electric cars in Indonesia, through gigantic solar plants in Saudi Arabia and hydroelectric projects in the Congo. Green energy, for Beijing, is not just a business. It is a soft power tool. A way to gain global land through infrastructure, long -term contracts and own financing. An influence that does not need military bases, but solar panels. In contrast, the United States has cut many of its international energy cooperation programs. Its foreign strategy is more transactional: specific gas, oil or even weapons agreements. But without a structural project that allows you to compete on this new energy board. And this change of roles? Half a century ago, the United States led energy innovation. In 1979, Jimmy Carter He installed solar panels In the White House. Decades later, Barack Obama financed projects like Tesla. But cases Like Solyndra’s failurea solar company that broke after receiving a federal loan, unleashed a conservative narrative against public investment in renewables. China, on the other hand, assumed risks. In the early 2000s, then Prime Minister Wen Jiabao – rare earth geneologist – understood that the country’s economic and geopolitical future went through controlling energy production. Your government invested hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, factories, technical training and innovation. Protected his market, automated manufacturing and dominated access to essential raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and silicon as has developed New York Times. The forecasts. The world is moving towards solar and wind energies, so confirms it The International Energy Agency. The energy demand will continue to grow, but its origin will be different. And that will change the global balance, because whoever leads this new energy matrix will also have a geopolitical, commercial and diplomatic advantage. China is prepared to lead that world. The big question is whether the United States – or any other global actor – is willing to compete with the same strategic vision, patience and scale. Because energy not only moves factories or illuminates cities. Today the global board moves. Image | Unspash Xataka | An explosive ramifications have just opened in the world energy industry: the “Peak Oil” of China

France and Spain wanted to ban social networks to children under 15. The European Union has stopped their feet

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France threatened yesterday with prohibiting access to social networks to those under 15 years If the EU did not rule on a community policy that unified the criterion for all the countries of the Union. Brussels’s response to this demand has been equally overwhelming. Each country is a world. Brussels He ruled out Wednesday The possibility of establishing a minimum community age to access social networks. There was a proposal led by Greece, France and Spain to establish it in 15 years, but those responsible for the European Union have it clear: there will not be a unique criterion, and each country must establish their own. Of community prohibition, nothing. Thomas Regnier, spokesman for technological sovereignty of the Community Executive, He indicated yesterday In the daily press conference that although they took note of the announcement of Emmanuel Macron, “a prohibition of social networks at European level is not something that the commission is promoting. This is prerogative of the Member States.” The tragedy. The Macron statements And his attempt to accelerate the implementation of a community access to social networks It comes from afar. However, that debate was urgently reactivated After the tragedy occurred on Tuesday at a Nogent school, in the Haute-Marne region. There a 14 -year -old student was arrested after killing a 31 -year -old watchman who performed routine backpacks. There is no evidence that this attack occurred for something that the adolescent saw on social networks. The community proposal does not advance. Several European Union countries They have been maintaining a debate on whether a minimum age must be established at the community level to access social networks. The initiative was led by Greece, France and Spain, but Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Slovakia and the Netherlands also supported it. Precisely Spain and Slovakia were the ones that were most shown and proposed to establish that minimum age in 16 years, while France, Greece or Denmark proposed to establish it at 15. That proposal, however, has not advanced. The RGPD as an instrument. He General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) already has article 8, which is specifically oriented to regulate the access of minors to “information society services”. According to said regulations“Member States may establish by law a lower age for such purposes, provided that this is not less than 13 years.” And the DSA prepares changes. The Digital Services Law is also preparing to establish regulation that affects minors. In fact, guidelines are prepared that theoretically will be published this summer and that will force the platforms – social funds among them – to protect the safety and privacy of minors. Private accounts, age verification. Among the measures that they must adopt is that the accounts of the minors are believed as private by default, in addition to the implementation of age verification measures. AGE VERIFICATION APP. As he points out The European Commission, in parallel to these guidelines, an age verification application is being developed that provides a solution until the European digital identity The EU is ready at the end of 2026. The technical specifications of said app are now available In Github. Image | Markus Spiske In Xataka | The Japanese are ceasing to consume paper pornography. And that has had a direct effect on its streets

France is the most radical country against technology among children. And now it plans something extreme: prohibit social networks

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“We must ban social networks to children under 15 years.” This blunt was the French president, Emmanuel Macron, speaking before the TV cameras. The measure It would be a pioneer In Europe, which studies initiatives in this regard, but there is a problem: France’s regulatory role is having negative consequences For companies and users. What happened. The statements of the Gallic president occurred after the Tuesday tragedy In a French school: a 14 -year -old boy stabbed and killed a member of the teaching staff. As they point out In EuronewsIt is not clear if this attack is associated with something that the teenager had seen on social networks. No knives. Macron intends to prohibit social networks to children under 15 “in the coming months” if there is no progress in a similar regulation at the European level. The tragedy in Nogent’s greate Indian that “a 15 -year -old can no longer buy a knife on the Internet. That means we are going to impose massive financial prohibitions and sanctions.” And either of social networks. But the highlight was that intention to ban social networks, something that even announced in X said intentionIn addition to stating that platforms have the possibility of verifying age to be able to implement this type of control and prohibition. Actually the message is not new: said exactly the same thing more than a year agobut the recent events and European inaction have re -promoted those intentions of Macron. They are already doing it with porn. On June 7, the law that forces pornographic platforms to verify age of users. The objective, prevent minors can access this type of content. But it is not going well. As a consequence of these measures, services such as Pornhub, Redtube and YouPorn have decided to leave the Gallic country and stop serving there. According to those responsible, this regulation is inefficient and potentially violates users’ privacy. Also propose a solution Device dependent and in which Google and Apple would have to make some modifications to their operating systems. The struggle of minors and screens. France was a pioneer in 2018 when prohibited mobile phones in schools for students under 15 years. Other countries They followed the wake, but the country continues to alert the dangers of the screens for the minors. In fact, a process was recently initiated to try prohibit the use of any screen (Mobile, but also TVS or computers) to children under six years. According to French experts In pediatrics or child psychiatry, not doing so exposes them to permanent damage to brain development. Spain, in the line of France. In our country the future law of the minor advocates Prohibit registration on social networks of children under 16 yearsclimbing the current limit two years. There are also measures to limit access to technology according to age, and for example from zero to three years the use of children should be prohibited from children, while from three to six years it is advisable except exceptions and under the supervision of an adult. The Spanish “pajorto”. The Government of Spain also launched a year ago The implementation of the Beta Digital Portfolio, popularly known as “Pajorte”. It is a mobile app that will theoretically serve to perform age verification and thus avoid or mitigate access to pornographic content by minors. Its implementation is limited, although the platforms that are already implementing it have detected A colossal fall of its traffic. Europe begins to move card. As they point out In politicianthe European Union has raised a proposal led by Greece and France and Spain as great support. In it the objective is to establish a new regulation to significantly limit the use of social networks by minors. According to the project, minors could lose direct access to networks Like Tiktok or Instagram and would need parental permission to visit these platforms. Denmark, which will occupy the presidency of the EU in the next six months, is in favor of these measures Image | Anthony Choren | Mary Borozdina In Xataka | There were two paths to regulate technology in children: the government has chosen the one with zero screens

A month after the blackout in Spain, we continue to drag the same problem that led us to him: electric networks

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The energy transition progresses strongly, but does so on a fragile base. According to the International Energy Agency, In your latest reportthis year 3.3 billion dollars in energy will be invested and only 12% will go to the networks. The imbalance is evident. And also worrying. A worrying imbalance. According to the IEAfor every dollar destined to produce electricity, just 40 cents are invested in transport networks. There are even more, the transformers can take up to four years to be available. To that is added a worrying increase. Since 2018, the prices of cables and transformers have doubled, making the expansion of infrastructure that support the system even more difficult and expensive. Is there a risk of blackout? The IEA has made it clear: “Entrepreneurship safety requires a rapid increase in networks.” A warning that resonates strongly on the Iberian Peninsula, which the report mentions as a case study after The April 2025 blackout. As for the blackout, and even without definitive official causes, everything indicates that it was not caused solely by the low inertia of the system, as initially suggested, but by a chain of chained technical failures. However, what this incident illustrates a structural problem: Investment in infrastructure and support technologies, such as MicroRedes either storage. Without a reinforced and prepared network to manage an increasingly complex electrical system, you can suffer interruptions. A bottleneck. There is even more, because a human capital challenge is added to investment problems. IEA has estimated that by 2030 there will be a deficit of 1.5 million workers qualified in electrical networks. This shortage affects key tasks such as the installation of transformers, digital systems or advanced control. In addition, planning and permits are slow processes. Networks require more than cables: they need intelligence, distributed control and resilience against failures. Are there solutions on the horizon? IEA has proposed Two clear lines: on the one hand, long -term network plans (minimum 10 years) such as those already applied India, Brazil or South Africa; And on the other, bet on digitalizationwhich already represents 25% of the global investment in electrical networks. The urgency of reinforcement. The final warning of the report does not leave interpretations: “Without action, the electrical networks will be the bottleneck of the energy transition” without a modern, robust and prepared network to manage variable clean energy, the green transition will not only be inefficient: it can become insecure. Renewable growth cannot be sustained on infrastructure of the twentieth century. So here a fairly clear question underlies: are we reinforcing our electrical networks with the same ambition with which we install renewables, or are we building on unstable terrain? Image | Miguel Á. Padriñán Xataka | In Elche a solar macroproject threatens a protected place. It is only the tip of the iceberg of a problem throughout Spain

Pocket was the place where you saved articles you never read. The dopamine chute of social networks has killed it

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I was an Pocket user. And like many others, I still did not read the articles that kept me. It was the condemnation of a service that opted for deferred and repossed reading of all kinds of articles – especially long – but found an apparently invincible nemesis: social networks. Mozilla closes Pocket. The Mozilla organization has announced That closes the Pocket service. On July 8 the platform will stop offering articles and will enter “mode only export”: users can export their articles saved until October 8, 2025, at which time “user data will be deleted permanently.” Reasons. According to those responsible, although Pocket has helped millions to save articles and discover stories that were worth reading, “the way people use the web has evolved, so we are channeling our resources to projects that best fit their navigation and online needs habits. “ A great service … Pocket was born in 2007 as Read It Later, a service that allowed to mark as favorite articles that you could read quietly when it came to you. The idea was gaining traction by focusing on extensive pieces of both journalism and creative writing. Mozilla He bought it In 2017 and made it one of the star services associated with its Firefox browser. … that we did not use so much. Many users will coincide with me that Pocket was fantastic but we did not take advantage of it. I kept keeping articles regularly with the hope of reading them in my Kobo e-book reader (which had this function integrated), but rarely ended up doing so. And on top we used a little bad. Pocket was so simple and comfortable to use that many ended up using it not only to keep promising – but not always wonderful – long texts (Longform), but all kinds of links with news or even tweets. And when you opened Pocket, two things used to happen. The first, the feeling of having another obligation before you, another list of tasks in the form of a list (endless) of articles to read. The second, to throw yourself for the short items that you knew you were going to consume in a short time to be able to “erase” from the list. Check “Reading later” had become a “take it off later.” But it was still a fantastic service, and it has not been we who have killed it. The culprit is another. Doomscrolling. Social networks They have stolen us Our capacity to concentrate. The dopamine chute that they offer us with the famous Doomscrolling has proven unstoppable. We love to displace the screen vertically on our mobile phones to see the following content, and that immediacy and instant gratification have ended up shaking our attention capacity. Until always, Pocket 🙁 Slot machine. The algorithms that govern social networks They are inspired by the slots. Its objective is to generate addiction and have us glued to the platform on duty without leaving it. A study Of 2021, the diabolical simplicity of our way of dealing with these contents revealed precisely. The experiment was overwhelming: A group of participants were given a single video and asked if they preferred to see another or perform a certain task. Another group were given five videos and asked them the same question. The second group was much more predisposed to watch more videos. Then the two groups saw the same number of videos, but the first group saw more diverse videos and the other saw more homogeneous videos. The second group showed its predisposition to see more videos instead of moving on to another task. AND ECO CHAMBERS. These results reflect our current reality. Social networks not only raise infinite content, but also do so Locking us increasingly in echo cameras with homogeneous content that reinforce our tastes and opinions. In Pocket we probably also built a large echo camera, true, but at least we did it, not an algorithm. The problem was to reserve 5, 10 or 15 minutes to read a long article is increasingly difficult before the avalanche of images, texts and especially short videos always suggestive, great and fun. Google Reader moment. Pocket’s closure remembers to some extent that we live with Google Reader, feeds RSS reader that the searches giant killed because although we loved him it was probably not profitable. As in that case, Pocket was a fantastic product but also very niche. And even in that niche, underutilized. Digital Diogenes. In fact, Pocket contributed to Our digital diogenes syndrome. It was the place where you saved, saved and saved articles that you never read. In that sense, it was less functional than Google Reader, that when you used you did, you took it to read those headlines of the news that were coming from the feed RSS. But that Save everything syndrome In order not to consume it or enjoy it, it occurs in many other scenarios, Like photos and videos of the mobile or in the video games that we download and to those who will never play. In fact it is not that we no longer play: is that We prefer to see others play. Alternatives. Pocket’s death makes us look for inevitable alternatives to continue keeping articles that we may never read. Among them stands out Instapaperbut they are also Readwise, Wallabag, Rindropeither Mymind. For those who have a kobo there is also somebut not so direct. Curse. Image | Mozilla In Xataka | Internet, let me forget

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