social

the main social video networks to go to if you are thinking of changing

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We are going to tell you which are the main ones alternative social networks to TikTok. We are going to focus on those that have a similar function and purpose, that of sharing short videos. Thus, in case you want a change of scenery you will know the best places to go. Let’s try to make the list varied. We will start with the heavyweights within the alternatives, other large platforms. But we will also mention other more independent and less known ones, which are gaining or have recently gained weight. Instagram and Facebook Reels If you want to stop using TikTok because you are concerned about privacy, Instagram or Facebook It will never be the best option with your Reels. However, we are going to start with them for audience reasons, because they are still two of the most popular and most used social networks in the world. The Reels become a copy of TikTokwhich Meta launched on its networks when the Asian social network began to gain importance. Therefore, its operation and options are basically the same, with the addition of being able to share the content in stories on these networks. YouTube Shorts YouTube also has its own system of shorter vertical videos with maximum duration of 3 minutes. It was also created after TikTok began to gain traction, and its main advantage is being accessible to the hundreds of thousands of users who already use YouTube. Loops If you are looking a social network where privacy prevailsit is inevitable to talk about Pixelfed. It is a decentralized alternative to Instagram, where users can create their own instances based on ActivityPuband its content is accessible from other social networks in the fediverse that use this protocol, such as Mastodon. Since 2024 Pixelfed has a parallel social network of alternative videos to TikTok called Loops. In essence it is the same, a decentralized social network of vertical videos. It is still in beta and does not have such a powerful user base, but it is there for anyone who wants to bet on it. Among the most indie alternatives we find UpScrolled. It is a network that claims to have arrived promising that all voices will be treated equallywithout algorithms that hide content, shadowbans, or favoritism for those who pay. This social network claims to be politically impartial, and that its algorithms are fair. It allows you to create videos, upload stories and chat with your contacts. It has a hashtag system, no space limits, and an interface clearly inspired by Instagram. snapchat Snapchat was once a powerful emerging social network, until Instagram overlapped it by copying its stories. Now it remains in the second row in terms of popularity, but still pretty solid with hundreds of thousands of users using it around the world. Although its main function is stories, it also has Spotlight, its TikTok-style vertical video feed, with filters, augmented reality, and many creation options. skylight One of the “indie” alternatives that is gaining the most traction at the beginning of 2026 is Skylight. It is an American social network which uses AT Protocolthe social media protocol of Bluesky. This means that you can use it with your Bluesky account, or create a new one in Skylight and make the content accessible from the paired social network. Skylight is not open source, but it is a public benefit corporation. These are companies that balance profits with purpose, and legally committed to creating positive social impact. The downside is that it can be a bit confusing when mixed with Bluesky, and that It is not yet available in Spainalthough you can view the content from Bluesky. RedNote RedNote It is a Chinese social network that is basically a clone of TikTok, and that in the past has positioned itself as an alternative that many were trying to switch to. However, It is not the best option in terms of privacy either.since like many massive social networks they collect a lot of sensitive personal data. And we end with another social network to take into account for the future. diVine is a social network supported by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, to resurrect the Vine platform of short six-second videos. Its applications are still in closed beta phase, but you can now play around with its web version. This network promises to adopt a decentralized concept similar to Bluesky, being able to have more control over moderation and algorithms. Its registry uses the Nostro decentralized protocol. Has positioned itself strongly against AIwith detection and blocking systems for this content to only have what is created by humans. In Xataka Basics | Your Bluesky account on Mastodon: how to create a bridge for your publications to reach the world

It is widely known that Orson Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’ caused a social panic. It is less known that it is a lie

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In my years of training as a journalist I remember how they told us to study the radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. My Radio and Television Information teacher told us that it was an exemplary event that could help us in the future practice of the profession to evaluate the responsibility of the media and to understand the mechanisms by which the so-called “fourth estate” could influence the social reality we serve. What perhaps the teachers who transmitted that information to me did not think is that they were right in what they had told me, but for a twofold and partially wrong reason. The legend of War of the Worlds The story is well known: HG Wells, a widely known science fiction writer at the time, had a story titled The War of the Worldsthrough which aliens would come to Earth to conquer humanity. A beginner but ambitious young man named Orson Welles decided to adapt the script to the radio format, giving it a newsreel structure for his television program. Mercury Theater on the Air on CBS and that he would read with other colleagues on the night of October 30, 1938, on Halloween Eve. The broadcast, the reading of this work, lasted an hour in which the aura of truthfulness was maintained except in three momentsone at the very beginning, another 40 minutes into the recording and another at 55. They indicated that it was a dramatization. For the rest, the fiction of that Martian invasion that was taking place in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, remained live. The myth, the documentaries and reports about the case and the journalism classes I attended said that Welles, the hired actors and the sound montages were so believable (and the audiences so naive) that within minutes of them starting to simulate a supposed alien attack the streets of the country were filled with hysterical and shocked masses. Panic attacks, people stockpiling supplies, collapsed police services and who knows what else. We assume that the people who did not hear those warnings were able to connect to the program after the warning and listened to the program without knowing that it was fake. And why wouldn’t we think like that? The newspapers of October 31 had carried the story to the foreground: “False war bulletin spreads terror throughout the country”, “Radio play terrifies the nation”, “Radio listeners panic, they confuse a war drama as a real chronicle”. These are some of the headlines that could be read about an event that, as it was said later, caused rivers of ink to flow in the form of more than 12,000 articles in newspapers throughout the United States. The reality is that, as a series of experts have reflected on different occasions, this interpretation largely falls into the realm of fake news. To support it here we use, above all, the study of professionals and experts from Princeton University, from the work of scholar David Miller in his essay Introduction to Collective Behaviorfrom the book Getting it Wrong by W Joseph Campbellfrom the work of sociologist Robert E. Bartholomew and from what journalists Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow have collected for Slate. What events did occur The broadcast did cause some effects. We know that some Grover’s Mill locals, believing their town’s water tower had been transformed into a “giant Martian war machine,” fired guns at the water tank. There was at least one woman who sued Welles and his team for causing her a panic attack and one man received direct compensation from the future film director who paid for the shoes that a listener said he had given up to pay for the train ticket he needed to escape the alien catastrophe. It is also true that calls to hospitals increased from people telling them where they could go to get donate bloodand police stations in the New Jersey area were also called, but most who did this were looking to find out if it was a false alarm. They wanted confirmation that it was a joke, but they also called to protest about this program that could be deceiving people or to congratulate them on that great special on that Night of the Dead. But nothing more. All of them came together to serve the approach that the written press wanted to give: that the CBS program had caused mass hysteria, that the radio was lying and deceiving its listeners and that they had created a major problem. And the lies that were published The rumor that people were being treated for shock in New Jersey hospitals was false, as the Princeton Radio office later revealed. The news that a man had died of a heart attack because of the program, as reported by the Washington Post, was also not true. People didn’t jump out of the windows either. In general, hundreds of articlesmany with supposed witness accounts, witnessed chaos that, in truth, had not been such. I remembered Some time later in his memoirs Ben Gross, radio director of the New York Daily News, that in truth the streets of New York They were half empty. It would also later be known that CBS had disconnected the Welles broadcast in different local affiliates in the country to show regional bulletins that, they assumed, would interest their audience more than a little play by Martians. The biggest scandal of all, the audience figures. It was said that more than a million people had listened to the program, when it could not be true. In fact, most people were listening to the NBC rival to ventriloquist Edgar Bergin’s popular radio show. And with most people we are talking about a 2% audience for the NBC show, as demonstrated by an independent survey that was done simultaneously with the broadcast. There is no doubt that in popular culture the idea that The War of the Worlds was a a before and afterthat the phenomenon must have been … Read more

Satya Nadella knows that AI now has “social permission” to burn electricity. And also that everything has a limit

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From time to time, a number of billionaire people get together to discuss topics that are considered important. This time he played at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, has issued a warning clear about the use of artificial intelligence and its excessive energy consumption. And for the executive, this technology only makes sense if it generates a real and positive impact on society, otherwise, “social legitimacy” would be lost to allocate scarce resources, such as energy, to its development. Energy. It is no surprise that AI data centers consume massive amounts of electricity and water. They already did it before dedicating themselves purely to the operation of AI, but now that expense has more than multiplied. A while ago, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, gave some estimated figures about ChatGPT’s power consumption, stating that it used about 0.34 watt-hours for each response generated. On a larger scale, the combined electricity consumption of Microsoft and Google exceeded that of more than 100 countries in 2023, according to the analysis by Michael Thomas, founder of Cleanview. The demand is not only energy, since a disproportionate volume of production of critical components is being allocated towards the development of projects related to AI, such as is happening with RAM in the world. Nadella’s warning. During his intervention In Davos, the CEO of Microsoft said that “We will quickly lose even the social permission to take something like energy, which is a scarce resource, and use it to generate these tokens, if these tokens are not improving outcomes in health, education, public sector efficiency or private sector competitiveness.” The CEO of Microsoft assured that the ultimate goal must be “to use AI to change tangible results in people, communities, countries and industries.” Otherwise, “none of this makes sense.” Tokens as a new global currency. Nadella mentioned in the conversation the “tokens” as the new currency among big technology companies. In this area, tokens are the basic processing units that users of AI models purchase to execute tasks. According to the CEO, “GDP growth anywhere will be directly correlated” with the cost of energy used in AI. In this way, Nadella says between the lines that if a country can produce tokens more cheaply, it will have a competitive advantage. The medical example. Among the specific applications that Nadella sees as valuable is the use of AI in the healthcare sector. He mentioned doctors who can spend more time with their patients while AI transcribes consultations, enters data into medical records systems and assigns correct billing codes. The risk of bubble. Nadella also addressed growing warnings about a possible AI bubble. For him, it will only be a bubble if everything remains in partnerships between technology companies and infrastructure spending. “A telltale sign that it’s a bubble would be if all we talk about are tech companies,” pointed out in his conversation with Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. The executive was confident that AI will “bend the productivity curve” and bring global economic growth, not just driven by capital expenditures. Mass adoption necessary. Microsoft’s CEO also insists that companies must start using AI on a large scale, describing it as a “cognitive amplifier” that grants “access to infinite minds.” It calls for workers to develop AI skills, similar to “how they master Excel to improve their employability.” Microsoft plans to invest 80 billion dollars in building AI data centers, with 50% of that spending outside the United States. Cover image | İsmail Enes Ayhan and World Economic Forum In Xataka | Europe is discovering right now that the US is not the partner it thought. And that is a problem in AI.

Australia has decided to ban social media for those under 16 years of age. The mystery is how they are going to achieve it

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December 10 was the date marked on the Australian calendar for prohibit social networks for minors under 16 years of age. Australia becomes the first country to implement a measure of this type, although there are others that also want to do it like Denmark or France. The ban is already in force, however there are still many doubts about how the measure will be enforced and how effective it will be. What exactly does it prohibit? The Online Safety Amendment establishes 16 years as the minimum age to have a social media account. This means that minors can access networks without logging into an account, which will allow them to consult public posts on social networks, watch YouTube or read Reddit threads. Without an account, they will not be able to access personalized feeds, receive notifications or communicate with other users. Currently, the amendment includes eleven services prohibited for minors: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X (Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, Kick, Threads and Lemon8. It is not ruled out that the list will change in the future. How are they going to verify the age? The million-dollar question and the one that leaves us with the biggest doubt of all. The amendment details the prohibitions, but leaves it up to the platforms to do the work of verifying the age of their users. It does not say how they should do it, it only specifies that they will not be able to do it just by asking for the DNI and they will not be able to save data related to age verification. Although they do not establish rules on how to carry it out, the Australian Government published a report in which they concluded that age verification technologies were technically viable. In the report they analyze several methods: Checking documents and identity records. Age estimation using biometrics and facial recognition. Age estimation from the user’s behavior or fingerprint. Parental control mechanisms. Image: Wikipedia The doubts about the effectiveness We have the recent case of United Kingdom when it banned porn for those under 18. They also proposed various age verification methods such as those mentioned in the Australian report. The reality has proven to be more complex and, after the blockade, there were a brutal spike in downloads of VPN serviceswhich means that many users fake their location to bypass the block. The law is made, the trap is made. Furthermore, the system is not perfect. They count in NYTimes that some teenagers have used the facial recognition option in some apps and it has incorrectly estimated their ages. And there is also the issue of privacy. Although the law says that platforms cannot collect data from the age verification process, there is no standardization in this regard and if we have learned something after decades on the internet, it is that leaks happen. What are the platforms doing? Instagram, Facebook and Threads Meta has already done his homework. On November 20, it notified users minors under 16 that their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads were going to be deleted. Regarding age verification, in September 2024 already announced “accounts for teenagers”which restrict certain features, such as making the account private by default and limited messages. To detect age, since April they have been using AI tools to detect users who lie about their age. In statements to Vergea representative of Meta has assured that the regulations “isolate adolescents from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection in the numerous applications they use.” TikTok and Lemon8 Bytedance apps have confirmed that from its entry into force, they will deactivate the existing accounts of those users under 16 years of age and will not allow them to create new accounts. Additionally, content from underage Australian users will be hidden. Regarding facial recognition, they offer several methods such as age estimation through facial recognition, credit card authorization, and verification of official identification documents. reddit Reddit has also started suspending the accounts of those under 16, but gives them the option to download their data first. In a post on the platformthey say that age verification will be done through “a prediction system.” The platform has taken a stand against this decision and states that the law “undermines everyone’s right to freedom of expression and privacy.” YouTube YouTube communicated that as of December 10, it would begin to suspend the accounts of those under 16, although they will be able to continue watching YouTube without being logged in since the law does allow it. They do not say how the age verification will be done, what they do say is that the new law is a mistake and that it will have a counterproductive effect since, by deleting the account, the possibility for parents to control what their children see will be lost, so minors will be even more insecure. snapchat In one publication on your website, Snapchat confirms that from December 10 it will block all accounts of those under 16. They will keep the account blocked for three years and if users turn 16 during that time, they will be able to recover it using age verification. Verification will be done in three ways: connecting the app with an Australian bank account, scanning the ID document and using the age estimation through a selfie. Twitch The streaming platform will prevent users under 16 from creating an account. For this they will use their verification system through facial recognition. Existing accounts will be deactivated starting January 9. Kick In the case of Kick, as published Guardianthey will use the same age verification system that Snapchat uses. X (Twitter) Elon Musk’s social network requested last September that the entry into force of the new regulations be delayed, as published Guardian. From X they expressed “serious doubts” about the legality of the regulations. What happens if the platforms do not comply? The law does not say how they should ensure that minors create an account, but it does say the consequences … Read more

Anti-abuse bracelets were going to be a technical solution to a social problem. They are generating chaos of incidents

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The Cometa system, which manages anti-abuse control bracelets, registered this Tuesday a new technical incident which ended up causing an overload of the service for several hours. The ruling forced the Ministry of Equality to implement the emergency protocol to guarantee the safety of the approximately 4,500 women who use these devices. In recent months, these bracelets have been the talk of the town. the problems that have caused. And while they promised to solve a big problem, they are also generating other parallels. What exactly has gone wrong. This last problem has been located in a router that distributes alert messages according to the type of incident (entry into exclusion zones, manipulation of the device, low battery, etc.). According to Equality, around 10% of these messages has generated incidents recurring events that have collapsed the system. The failure was detected at 4:30 in the morning and the service did not regain stability until 5:25 p.m., although complete normalization did not arrive until 9:00 p.m. During this time, the panic button, emergency calls and Bluetooth alerts remained operational, according to informed the ministry. The Government’s response. From the moment the incident was detected, the protocol planned for these situations was activated: the 4,500 users of the service received text messages informing them of the problem and the Security Forces and Bodies were alerted to reinforce surveillance. Minister Ana Redondo and the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Carmen Martínez-Perza, traveled to the headquarters of the Cometa service and maintained direct contact with the Vodafone-Securitas UTE, the company responsible for the system. “No victim has been unprotected at any time during these hours of crisis,” has assured Round in a message spread through social networks. A device that accumulates problems. This incident comes just two months after the State Attorney General’s Office uncovered an even more serious mistake: During the transfer of management from Telefónica to Vodafone, access to the geolocation data of hundreds of attackers was lost for several months. This caused, according to the annual report of the Prosecutor’s Office, “a large number” of dismissals and acquittals in cases of violation of restraining orders, since the judges could not have the necessary evidence. That episode generated a strong political controversy, with the PP asking for resignation de Redondo, who defended that the victims were never in danger and criticized the “lack of prudence” of the Prosecutor’s Office in making the ruling public without providing concrete data. A technology in question. What was presented at the time as an effective technological solution to protect victims of gender violence is showing that it also has important limitations. The Government has announced that the next tender for the service, scheduled for spring, will include “technical improvements” and that an audit is currently being carried out to check whether Vodafone is complying with the contract. “We will investigate until the end and, if necessary, we will take appropriate action,” has warned Round. Beyond technology. Despite the incidents, anti-abuse bracelets continue to be considered a valuable tool. Since their implementation in 2009, no woman wearing one of these devices has been murdered. The ministry insists that the protection system goes beyond technology and includes an “institutional network” of professionals that guarantees the safety of victims. However, we have also witnessed that technology fails, and it is precisely in these cases that we must prevent this from happening at all times. Cover image | EFE (Herbert Neubauer) and National Police In Xataka | How to share location with your entire family permanently with your mobile

More and more countries want to prohibit minors from using social networks. Denmark makes a move

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Should minors have social networks? The debate is raging and more and more voices are advocating a total ban. Australia has a law on the table that will prevent minors under 16 years of age from using social networks and our french neighbors They have also shown their inclination to follow this path. Now it is Denmark that makes its move. what has happened. The Danish government has reached an agreement to ban social media for those under 15 years of age. In statements to the Associated PressDanish Prime Minister Caroline Stage has assured that 94% of Danish children under 13 and more than half of those under 10 have profiles on social networks. “The time they spend connected to the Internet, the amount of violence and self-harm to which they are exposed online, poses too great a risk for our children,” he stated. The measure contemplates that parents who wish may authorize their children to access social networks from the age of 13. Why is it important. Denmark becomes the first European country to agree to such a ban. The ban could take months to take effect because they want to tie everything together. According to Stage, “We must ensure that the regulations are adequate and that there are no loopholes that technology giants can exploit.” The European position. This summer several countries, including Spain, approached the European Commission to request a ban at the European level. The commission’s response was clear: The ban must be carried out by each country, there will be no common prohibition. However, the EU is developing the European Digital Identityan app to identify ourselves when carrying out procedures and that will also work as an age verifier. How will they do it. The plan is to use Denmark’s electronic ID system, although they have not given many details on how it will work. The Prime Minister talks about forcing technology companies to “carry out appropriate age verification, and if they do not do so we will be able to enforce the regulations through the European Commission and ensure that they are fined up to 6% of their global income.” Pajaport. In parallel to the debate about access to social networks there is also that of porn. Spain announced the Beta Digital Wallet, known as ‘pajaporte’ to limit access to porn by minors. At the moment it is not in force, but there are other countries that have similar initiatives that are already underway, such as France, where its implementation caused the closure of Pornhub in the country. The United Kingdom is another of the countries where you have to identify yourself to watch porn. The traffic of Pornhub plummeted 77%, so it seems that the measure had an effect. However, the huge growth of VPN tools It suggests that many users could be masking their location to bypass the ban. Doors to the field. Using a VPN is a way to bypass restrictions, and in the case of access to social networks by minors it could also be an option to bypass the restriction. There are still many doubts about how it will be executed on a technical level, but with easy access to the screens and the ability of some children to avoid limitationsdoes not seem like an easy task. Images | Pexels 1, 2 In Xataka | Neither TikTok nor Instagram until the age of 16: Spain will raise the minimum age to register on social networks in two years

It’s the new social ritual

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There is a universal condiment in our meals that has been gaining weight in recent years: a screen in front of the plate. It doesn’t matter if it’s breakfast in a hurry, lunch at the desk next to the keyboard or dinner on the couch after a tiring day: we chew while we scroll with the same automation with which we breathe. The act of eating without watching something – short vertical videos, a series, a ten-minute video – has gone from being common to being almost unnatural. As if food alone wasn’t enough of a stimulus for those fifteen minutes. There are circumstances that lead us to eat alone: ​​life without a partner, teleworking, studies, a work trip or the dynamics of the cubicle in the office. They have all converged on the same ritual: the screen is no longer an occasional accompaniment but the defining framework of the modern food experience. The problem is not physical loneliness but the inability to be present even when we are accompanied. We have reconfigured the meal: now it is down time that must be optimized. Eating has become an annoying biological need that interrupts our real life, the one that takes place on the screens. That’s why we eat watching youtubes: not to make the meal more enjoyable, but to not waste those minutes on something as banal as feeding ourselves. The screen rescues us from the terrible inefficiency of simply eating. It allows us to continue consuming information, entertainment, and social validation, while we fill our mouths. And here’s something darker: shared food has been, for millennia, the fundamental social glue. It is no coincidence that all religions have food rituals, that all important agreements are sealed with banquets, that the word “companion” comes etymologically from “sharing bread”. When eating in front of screens—alone or with others— Not only do we lose conversation, we lose daily training in reciprocity, in the rhythms of giving and receiving that structure all social life.. A child who grows up having dinner parked with TikTok learns that communication is one-way, that entertainment requires no mutual effort, that the presence of the other is optional and, ultimately, substitutable. The market, of course, has detected this trend with its usual precision. Food products are now designed for one-person and one-handed consumption: bowls that do not require a knife, wraps that free the hand of scroll, snacks dosed for intermittent snacking between stories. The apps of delivery They’ve perfected the art of solitary gratification, with algorithms that learn your cravings and anticipate them. The entire food ecosystem is reconfigured around this new atomized diner who eats without consciousness, chews without tasting, swallows without sharing. It is the taylorization definitive of the act of eating: efficient, individual, stripped of any ritual or social dimension. But without a doubt, The most disturbing of all is our discomfort when someone eats alone without a screen in a public space.. That individual who simply eats, looking into space or at his plate, is disturbing to us. What are you thinking about? Why don’t you get distracted? Don’t you feel the pressure to appear busy, connected, relevant? Its simple presence lays bare our own inability to be alone, our addiction to digital mediation in even the most basic acts. We have reached a point where loneliness without a screen is read as social failure, as if not having notifications during meals were a sign of irrelevance. The final paradox is worthy of chef kiss: We have never been more connected and we have never eaten more alone. We exchange memes while ignoring whoever is in front of us, we document dishes that no one will share with us, we perform a digital social life while our analog social life atrophies. When anthropologists of the future study our civilization, they may wonder how a species that evolved by sharing food around a fire ended up staring at glowing rectangles while chewing in solitude, convinced that this was progress.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ In Xataka | An eternally unfocused generation: “I can’t do anything for more than fifteen minutes without looking at my phone” Featured image | Xataka

Fed up with excessive luxury, social media users turn to normality: creators with everyday lives

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A recent television controversy with the content creator @supaa97 has put on the table a series of issues that are perhaps at the opposite end of the topics we always talk about in reference to the influencers (fortunesluxuries, excesses): can content be created from absolute normality? Is that close to normalizing precariousness? And if it does, is it a problem? The Suyapa case. The controversy started, just as Suyapa says (which is his real name), when he agreed to do an interview for ‘Public Mirror’ to comment a video of your profile in which she told how she lived in a single room with her husband and son, and was classified as a “Poverty Influencer”, along with users who make videos with unboxings of government aid. Suyapa has stated that she is far from that type of content, and although it is true that she lives in very modest conditions in a single room, she earns her living by working as a cleaner and without resorting to aid, so she could not be included in a category of poverty. The appeal of normality. Suyapa makes a type of content closer to normcore (which is still a label created from top to bottom): these types of profiles share ordinary activities (from choosing simple and functional clothing to routines such as making a coffee, taking care of a pet or sharing morning tasks) moving away from the cult of luxury or drama that predominates in other digital spheres. They embrace simplicity and naturalness in both fashion and lifestyle: basic garments, discreet brands, homey environments and a staging that is not aspirational but friendly and accessible. He normcore as a label. This type of content is sometimes, as we say, a reaction to more luxurious and frivolous creators. If it arises spontaneously, because the creator does not ascend the social scale even if he wants to (as happens with Suyapa), or as a voluntary limitation, it is another question where you can talk about posture. That is to say, sometimes normcore is a false normality that arises as a reaction to luxury saturation. A more relaxed visual narrative is artificially sought, where the emotional connection is based on trust, identification and everyday honesty, but sometimes it is also a pose that seeks, paradoxically, to convey an image of coherence and credibility. What did they think it was? What ‘Espejo Público’ alluded to and where it mistakenly included @suyapaa97 was in a different type of phenomenon that we know as “pornomiseria” or “poverty porn”, which has two aspects: on the one hand, influencers on social networks that viralize acts of charity towards people in poverty to monetize these contents through likes, views and donations. One of the best known cases is that of Jimmy Dartswho with more than 12 million followers on TikTok, makes videos with homeless people, testing their honesty or proposing challenges. It is a controversial format that has a large number of ethical implications, even though influencers reward the people they portray with a large amount of money, as detailed this article. Something similar happens with amateur journalists who, under the pretext of portraying poverty and misery, create sensationalist content, a format whose origins date back to the seventies and that again has very complex moral connotations. Yonfluencers: from normality to luxury, and back again. Recentlythe rejection of social media consumers to the exaggerated and elitist display of luxury into which many have fallen influencers has made me think in how the perception we have of this type of content creators has changed. Many of them began as a daily reflection of our lives and as they earned money and followers, they distanced themselves from reality, generating a certain aversion from those who followed them for being a close and identifiable replica. That’s why content creators like Suyapa work, who have to overcome obstacles that are easy to identify with: tightening their belts to make ends meet, juggling time off from work or looking for affordable forms of leisure are some of the problems that the vast majority of people face. In Xataka | The influencer María Pombo defends her right not to read. And by the way, it raises an interesting controversy about habits

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

Altri’s megaplant has caused a huge social response in Galicia. And now the government has given him the lunge

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In April 2022, the Portuguese company Altri chose Palas de Rei in Lugo to install a large plant initially destined for textile fibers (Lyocell). It was presented as “The most important project” From the Galician candidacy for the Next Generation funds and received early political support. However, according to They met The procedures and the real scope, collective and critical means began to refer to the initiative as a large cellulose panel, with much broader impacts than the “biophabic” label suggested. Three years later, the star plan runs out of plug: the central government leaves it out of electrical planning until 2030, and the project enters the risk zone. The decision that changes everything: without substation, there is no projectThis week, the Ministry for Ecological Transition He has left out of its 2025-2030 planning both the substation and the access to the network that Altri claimed for its plant. According to El Paísthe Executive has prioritized “more viable” investments, with greater socioeconomic return and lower environmental impact, and avoids loading consumers with projects associated with projects With financial uncertainty. Greenfiber – the promoting society participated by ALTRI and Greenalia— maintains that it is of a “purely political” resolution and announces resources; The PP of Galicia speaks of “punishment” to the Lucense industry, while neighborhood and environmental platforms celebrate the pass, without lowering their guard. He No of the central government. The Secretary of State for Energy claims that the substation and connection requested would only serve this project, whose execution is not yet guaranteed its financing, including request of 250 million euros in public aid (decarbonization belong). “We cannot assume a network investment that could be idle,” Sources from the Ministry transfer. For its part, According to El ConfidencialAltri warns: “Without connection there is no investment”, but progress that will exhaust “all resource mechanisms.” The position of the Xunta. The Galician government argues that the project meets and that the favorable day (published in the DOG) support your environmental viability under conditions and surveillance program, waiting for other authorizations. The Xunta insists that the factory It would be “energetically neutral” and that its electrical exclusion “takes Lugo from the industrial map.” Therefore, as they detail in the confidentialhas translated into a political confrontation has resulted in hard crosses between Alfonso Rueda and the leader of the PSdeG, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, who advanced the government’s decision. The project from within. Different groups of neighborhood platforms such as Ulloa Viva, Brotherhoods of Marshamers of the Ría de Arousa and NGOs such as Adega and Greenpeace alert three key impacts: Water: Collection of 46 million liters daily of the Ulla and discharge of about 30 million liters/day – part at 27 ° C— in a river already tensioning for episodes of eutrophication, with potential condition to the Ría de Aruous. Raw material: estimated annual consumption of wood between 1.2 million m³ and even 2.4 million tons of eucalyptus. The divergence of figures underlines the controversy over eucalypticization and its effects on biodiversity and fire. Emissions and air: 75 -meter chimney and compound emissions acid rain precursorswith corrective measures subject to regulations. The Water War reaches courts. While the electrical board clears, the judicial one is turned on. Adega and the Da Ría de Arousa (PDRA) platform, together with the CIG, have filed contentious-administrative resources to declare the water grant file, having exceeded the legal deadline of 18 months without resolution, According to the jump. To the offensive They have added seven brotherhoods of the Ulla-Arousa and the entire sector of the Galician mussel. The Xunta replicates that the complexity of the procedure justifies the delay and that there is no damage to third parties, an interpretation that the plaintiffs reject to generate “legal insecurity.” And now what? Electrical exclusion opens a period of allegations and probable more intense prosecution of the file. Although the favorable day of the Xunta keeps the administrative channel, the “Electricity Class” and Water Concession alive places the project at its most fragile time. “Without water and without connection,” the detractors agree, “there is no macrocellulose.” Galicia returns to live a pulse between industrial promise and territory protection. Between an investment that the Xunta considers a tractor and a social license that, for now, does not arrive. The Palas de Rei plant, a symbol of that conflict, remains in the air: aside, the lack of network and the judicial front; On the other, the political effort to keep it afloat. The outcome is no longer settled only in offices: also on the banks of the Ulla and in the Ría de Arousa – and in court. Image | Greenpeace Xataka | Renfe is delighted to have competition in Madrid-Galicia. Especially since he knows that he will not have competition

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