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In Galicia, a tiny town made Pedro Almodóvar fall in love with filming. Today it is a magnet for TikTok

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Colorful houses next to the water, boats rocking at the foot of the facades and a tiny square overlooking the port. It is a beautiful town and the postcard seems stolen from some corner of Italy. However, it is in that Galicia that looks like a movie set, has barely 300 inhabitants and is called Redes. Of course, it is almost impossible to park. In fact, there is a common joke around the “multidrome“, because of the habit of many people of going down streets until they park almost on the beach. Maybe that’s why this Galician Venice has appeared three times on the screen but almost never on the map. A “Galician Venice”. No channels, of course.. First, the key data: Redes is a village in the parish of Camouco, in the municipality of Ares, region of Ferrolterra, province of A Coruña. It overlooks the Ares estuary, and from there comes the nickname with which it circulates on the internet: the Galician Venice. There are no gondolas or canals; There is an Atlantic estuary and fishing boats that give the town a beautiful scenery. And, in the background, the bay full of little white boats. Its name, by the way, comes from the winches, those wooden structures where fishermen hung their nets to dry after fishing, to prevent them from rotting and deteriorating. There are still a lot of them preserved around the port. Going in the low season is well worth the trip because then you can walk between colorful facades of a unique photogenicity. They are Indian houses, built by Galician emigrants who returned from America at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century with money and a desire to show off their façade. Ready to roll. Three different productions filmed here. One in the square, another in the port and another in the houses. Pedro Almodóvar filmed a good part of ‘Juliet‘ (2016), with Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suárez: the protagonist follows a fisherman, Xoán, to his hometown, and that town is Redes. The film won the Platinum Award for best direction. Galician Television also recorded scenes from ‘Padre Casares’ here, one of the most legendary and long-running TVG (Galician Regional Television) series, and director Carlos Solana filmed ‘Leo & Lou’ in its streets, with Manuel Manquiña and María Pujalte. Neighbors say that the relationship with the film crews was quite familiar. It seems that seeing a production company install spotlights and generators in the square no longer surprises anyone here. In the past Carmen Festivals Quite a few cameras were also seen. A magnet for TikTok. Yes, I admit to being that traveler who hates travelers, who is in other cities complaining about long lines and touristification. But it is that on TikTok and Instagram, Networks has become a fixed stop, with too many comments asking for the exact location. Among the answers there is no lack of the warning: the urban area is practically pedestrian, you cannot park inside, leave the car in the Redes Tennis Club parking lot and walk in, it takes less than five minutes. But there are people who would like to drive their car to the terrace of the Pousada do Mariñeiro. Light and saturation to the maximum, people erased with AI and, alas, to sell the idea. There are ways and means of traveling; some more respectful, adapted; others, too invasive and performative. Furthermore, the resource of comparing it with Venice is somewhat insulting: why not learn from its own idiosyncrasies? Port Saplaya, an urbanization in Alboraya (Valencia) built in the 70s imitating the Italian and French coast, is already being compared to Venice. It is worth knowing the history of Paco de Bello’s house, for example. The sea, true protagonist. Redes exists thanks to its fishermen—and its Cuban emigrants, why not say it—and that translates into the festivities. In summer the Cabria Festival is celebrated, in homage to those drying structures that give the town its name. Within walking distance is Raso beachfacing the estuary, with calm waves and suitable for families, with a campsite and restaurant on the edge of the sand. Nearby, in Punta Camouco, there are remains of an old fort on the islet of Mourón. To get there, the reference is the AP-9 highway: coming from Ferrol or A Coruña you have to take the Pontedeume exit and continue for about ten minutes on the local road; The detours are also signposted if you travel on the N-651 passing through Fene. By car, Redes is about 15 minutes from Ferrol5 from Pontedeume and half an hour from A Coruña by highway. There is no train station or direct bus to the town itself because the town is visited by car, or by combining public transport to Ares and a final walk. And although you can explore the entire area in a couple of hours, Pedregal Square invites you to stay much longer. It has an amazing sunset. Images | Flickr (José Luis García Mendoza, TikTok’s ‘We pack the suitcases‘ In Xataka | TikTok is only the tip of the iceberg of the great Internet drama in 2026: most of the content is already AI

The San Fermín bulls fight against TikTok and against modern times. And the ‘Joker’ proves that they are losing

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He wanted to be the protagonist in the San Fermín running of the bulls and he has achieved it. At least for a few hours. He more or less complied with the dress code of scarf and red sash, espadrille, white shirt and pants. But he was dressed up like the Joker. Not in vain do they know him as the “Joker” of the bullswith his green hair and that crazy look. With millions of views on their networks, the arrest and proposed sanction was not due to a matter of bad taste, but rather for converting the confinement into content and skipping a couple of digits from the public ordinance of Pamplona. After climb onto a balcony and do everything the performance so much in the square As in the races, the Municipal Police reduced it and stopped him. The case summarizes a phenomenon that has been growing for years. The Sanfermines continue to be a centenary festival, already converted into a huge set for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Every morning, dozens of runners look for a viral image and, meanwhile, the Municipal Police continues with its technique of tightening control to prevent the race from becoming a (more) dangerous spectacle. Mobile phones are still prohibited. Smart glasses too. In fact, this creative apogee has even forced the type of surveillance to change. Years ago the problem was cell phones. The municipal police told us that smartphones are not confiscated, but that runners are “invited” to leave the course. But things have changed. The use of smart glasses capable of recording video from the runner’s point of view has put the entire police force on alert. In just three running of the bulls during San Fermín 2026, the Municipal Police seized 54 glasses recording within the tour. All of them failed to comply with article 11 of the Ordinance, which prohibits the use of any image or sound device without express authorization. The violation is considered serious and can result in fines of between 601 and 6,000 euros. Who is the Joker behind the mask. Just like ElPaís has documentedthe name of this white label Joker is Lacey Mrzena. He landed in Pamplona from Chicago (Illinois), already dyed green and with his face made up. He seems to love the DC Comics villain and calls himself Straighdroplace. The arrest occurred after touching the bulls, he defied the municipal officials and reoffended despite police warnings. The Police insist that the costume does not constitute no violation. What is punishable (and sanctioned) are the behaviors that put the safety of the rest of the runners at risk. What can or cannot be done in the 850 meters that separates a good handful of bulls from a hundred people running these days, from last July 6 to today, closing day, is perfectly indicated after years of reviews: clothing, objects or behaviors that make the race difficult must leave the course in order to maintain “the good order and security of the running of the bulls.” More and more expulsions and sanctions. The “Joker” is just one of many. The Local Civil Protection Board confirmed several complaints during the holidays for reasons such as calling the attention of the cattle by shouting, climbing on urban elements or recording while they ran without permission or license to do so. Any distraction can cause a chain fall among dozens of runners and that is where the real danger lies. These objects can be confiscated for hindering progress on the course, the runner can be expelled and disciplinary proceedings can be initiated. And, of course, if the person reoffends or disobeys the agents’ orders, they can end up detained and fined with sanctions that “depend on the criteria of dangerousness and people involved according to each case”, as explained to us from Udaltzaingoa. The algorithm rewards risk. With videos that, until replicatedexceed the average number of TikTok views, the conflict of violating the ordinance in Pamplona seems to be worth it to some. In recent years, videos have proliferated that seek to be increasingly spectacular at popular festivals or mass events, even using drones and editing the speed to resemble professional sports content. In San Fermín the incentive is evident. A video recorded just a few centimeters from a bull can accumulate millions of views in a matter of hours. The more extreme the scene seems, the greater its diffusion. That incentive clashes with the philosophy of confinement. The Joker is just the scapegoat for an event that many sign up for just to see it. “What is this about confinement?”” from within. A battle impossible to win. The Municipal Police recognizes that technology evolves faster than those controls that many skip in the bullfightas is the case of selectivity reviews, with new radio frequency detectors. Every year new recording devices appear that are smaller and harder to detect. Smart glasses are the latest example that previously preceded GoPro and similar cameras. Meanwhile, the authorities maintain the same message: running requires doing it without cameras, without cell phones and without elements that distract participants. Virality is no exception. The “Joker” will probably disappear when San Fermín ends and we will see him again next year. Because the phenomenon lends itself like a magnet to any massive party that serves as a global showcase. And because, in practice, it is extremely difficult to prevent someone from being willing to risk a fine—or worse—to get the perfect video. Images | Flickr (Jonan Basterra) / Own edition In Xataka | Pamplona has discovered the definitive trick to break the rule: running in San Fermín filming it with glasses. The Police have another opinion

TikTok has convinced us that we need 50-minute showers. The WHO has a much stricter limit

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Social networks from time to time viralize a challenge or habit that for many people was not on their radar. The latest of these is a huge Gen Z self-care trend that has been dubbed “Everything Shower” or in Spanish as the “hygiene Olympics”. The concept is simple, since it focuses on transforming the shower into a mega-beauty ritual that includes exfoliation, hair removal, hair masks, deep cleansing and hydration with showers that last 50 minutes. It’s going more. Under the premise of self-care and mental relaxation, this practice has gone viral as the definitive routine to “reboot” the weekend. However, if we put this trend through the scientific filter, the picture changes drastically. From both a public health and sustainability point of view, 50-minute showers are not a reward for your body, but rather a punishment. A dermatological disaster. It may seem contradictory, but exposing the body to water for almost an hour does not hydrate and, in fact, does the opposite. Here the dermatological consensus suggests that prolonged exposure to water, especially if it is hot, and the continued use of surfactants in gels and shampoos, very negatively affects our skin barrier. Why this damage is caused is well documented, since spending 50 minutes under the jet causes transepidermal water loss. By aggressively removing lipids and natural moisturizing factors from our skin, the outermost layer of our skin becomes dehydrated. But in addition, the excess of this wash alters the pH and destroys our skin microbiome, which are nothing more than bacteria that protect us. Its consequences. With this dehydration of the skin, the only thing that is achieved is having a greater risk of xerosis, which is nothing more than having chronically dry skin, but also a feeling of tightness, peeling and itching. Without going any further, in people with sensitive skin or a tendency to atopic dermatitis, a ritual of this type is the perfect one-way ticket to a severe outbreak. Three minutes. The experts they are clear that the ideal shower should be short, just between 3 and 5 minutes and always with warm and not boiling water. And they go one step further in terms of the use of soap, since they recommend soaping focused exclusively on the areas of greatest sweating, such as the armpits, groin or genitals. In fact, they point out that, for most people, a daily shower with soap all over the body is not even strictly necessary to maintain good health. It is not sustainable. If the impact it has on the skin is worrying, the environmental impact is simply a catastrophe. If we take out the calculator and take into account that a 10-minute shower has an average consumption of 200 liters of water, we can know that spending 50 minutes doing this hygiene ritual can cost 1,000 liters of water per person. It is an exorbitant figure that clashes head-on with any policy to protect the scarce water resource, not to mention the enormous energy cost of heating that amount of water. The referent. To put this waste in perspective, just look at the WHO guidelines through its WASH program, which establishes a shower of 5 minutes or less as a reference for sustainable hygiene. To give us an idea, the average daily consumption goal set by the organization to cover all the basic needs of a person is around 95 liters of water in total. Images | Armin Rimoldi In Xataka | The extreme hygiene of the modern world was supposed to have caused allergies: ancestral DNA has something to say

the industry is not ready for TikTok

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In April 2024, several technicians from the statistical service of the US Department of Agriculture raised their eyebrows at the same time: sales of cottage cheese had skyrocketed so enormously that, evidently, it could only be a mistake. So, as protocol dictates in these cases, they picked up the phone and They started calling, one by one, all the producers. It wasn’t a mistake. Two years later, that same “wave” reaches a factory in Vilalba, in Lugo. There, Entrepinares (the largest cheese manufacturer in Spain) is about to spend more than 20 million euros to also become the Spanish king of cottage cheese. What is happening? How is it possible that in the land of Cabrales, Manchego and Maó that flat, dull and amorphous thing called a cottage is triumphing? But let’s start with the Mercadona line… because there we find many of the answers. As I say, Entrepinares will allocate more than 20 million to produce, in its Vilalba plant, about seven million kilos of this product. The change for the company is greater than it seems because, despite being the largest cheese factory in Spain, it does not produce fresh cheese. Spain has never been a place very fond of fresh cheese. It’s not that there isn’t any (from cottage cheese to mata or ‘Burgos cheese’), but the storage conditions complicated its popularity. Such is the situation that, during all these years, Mercadona has not been able to find a national supplier for its cheese. This has meant that there have been several changes of supplier and that the product is sold out with quite a striking frequency. It wasn’t a big problem as long as the demand was small and controllable; but now the situation has changed. What happened to cottage cheese? For the confused: we are talking about a grainy, unpressed curd that contains about 12 grams of protein per 100 and just 4% fat. In reality, if we want to fully understand what happened, we have to think of it more than as a cheese… as a “protein supplement” that is made with milk. That’s why it didn’t have any success: the “cultural gap” didn’t exist until the protein rush created it. And what if he made it: cottage consumption in Spain grew by 61% in 2025seven times more than fresh cheese, according to NIQ. 61%? It sounds like a lot (a lot) and it is, but there is something of a trick to it. After all, the cottage cheese started almost from scratch. Cottage cheese remains almost anecdotal in the Spanish cheese market as a whole. However, the growth pattern is global and even in much more mature markets (such as the US or the United Kingdom) growth is around 20% and the +41.9%. The question that everyone has is the same: fashion or fixed category? And there the opinions are varied. While analysts such as John Crawford maintain that It’s not something temporary (two years of double-digit growth in value and volume is not a fad) others like Mike McCully are more cautious (and “believe that the boom comes after two decades of decline because of TikTok”, which suggests that it may go away as quickly as it came). Be that as it may, what is clear is that this story goes beyond cheese. It is about how our food systems are suffering (and will suffer) pressures from extremely volatile ‘states of opinion’. It is, above all, that we are not prepared for it (and being prepared will cost us a lot of money). Image | Caroline Roose In Xataka | There is a brand devouring the cheese industry in Spain thanks to Mercadona: Entrepinares

The problem is not that there is AI on TikTok. It’s already more than half of what you see as soon as you enter.

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Since we have models of image generation and videos with AI so cutting edge, we have begun to get used to seeing all types of content generated by artificial intelligence on social networks. It’s no longer just that we eat the occasional deepfake, it’s that much of the entertainment content that appears in our feed has been generated by AI. An analysis of more than 10,000 videos reveals that TikTok, the most susceptible to what we know as ‘AI slop‘, shows this type of content at a rate three times higher than that of YouTube, and that children’s content is the most affected. The problem has a name. As we have mentioned before, It’s called AI slop, and it’s Pretty cheesy, mass-produced content with artificial intelligence tools with the sole objective of accumulating views. In this content it is very common for us to see cartoon characters in absurd situations, videos that aim to give us educational lessons, or voices generated by AI over images that are deformed, among many others. There is now data that measures the presence of this type of content on TikTok, with a rather uncomfortable precision. What the study says. Kapwing, a San Francisco-based video editing company, has analyzed 10,742 videos spread across 20 TikTok categories and placed special emphasis on the first 500 videos that the platform showed to newly created accounts. 294 of those 500 videos, that is, 59%, were classified as AI slop. The study states that the methodology was manual and without automation, and the data collected corresponds to May 2026. Kapwing defines this type of content as videos with obvious use of AI-generated images, or low-quality compilations with clearly artificial scripts and voice-overs. In perspective. That rate is almost triple what Kapwing recorded on YouTube when performing the same test with a new account. On the Google-owned video platform, 21% of the first 500 videos in the Shorts feed were AI slops. YouTube has also taken more aggressive measures, last January canceling 16 channels with a combined 35 million subscribers for violating its artificially generated content policy. On TikTok, on the other hand, the phenomenon seems to have established itself as the natural state of the algorithm before the user even begins to personalize their experience by scrolling. Children, the most exposed. The category with the highest slop density on the entire platform is children’s content, with 57.4% of videos classified as AI-generated garbage. Within the #CartoonKids hashtag, 97 out of every 100 videos analyzed were artificial. Furthermore, as the study points out, in #babysong and #cartoons, the proportion was around 83%. In #forkids, 79%. In this content it is very common to see characters from well-known series getting into situations that make no sense, lessons to be learned that make mistakes, or animations that mutate in a strange way. Exposure to AI from an early age. The Next Web medium share the words of Dr. Dana Suskind, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago, who describes the phenomenon as “AI disinformation for young children on an industrial scale.” “Each experience builds a million new neural connections. Without meaning to, you will be wiring the brain incorrectly,” he warned. The risk is not limited to meaningless content, since the categories of science, education, health and history also register high rates of slop, between 33% and 35%, according to the study. The algorithm amplifies the problem. According to Kapwing’s own study, when a new account shows interest in AI content, the algorithm interprets that signal and ends up showing more. TikTok’s personalization mechanism, designed to fine-tune the feed based on user behavior, turns the initial slop into a starting point that feeds back. As well as points out The study, by the time the platform activated a control in November 2025 that allows users to increase or reduce the amount of AI-generated content in their feed, had already labeled 1.3 billion videos as AIGC (AI-generated content). What TikTok has done. In addition to feed control, the platform has allocated two million dollars to an educational fund to develop content on literacy and AI. But the study’s numbers suggest that these measures have not significantly curbed the volume of slop reaching new users. Furthermore, having an inexhaustible source of content, such as that generated by AI, contributes to the retention of the platform, so it is understandable that the platform does not have much interest in passing the broom. Cover image | Kenneth Schipper and ROBIN WORRALL In Xataka | Commodore conquered millions of users with the C64 in the 80s. It wants to repeat its success with a very rare smartphone

Commodore has launched a retro smartphone that blocks browsers, Instagram or TikTok. It is garish, original and expensive

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My first computer was a Commodore C64, so you will understand that this news hits a nerve with me. The brand, purchased last year by YouTuber Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson, has now risen from the ashes with the surprising release of Commodore Callback 8020. We are looking at a smartphone with a retro aesthetic that also draws attention for its focus: the idea here is not to compete with the iPhone or the best Android phones, but rather help us not be glued to the cell phone so much since the telephone is above all that: a telephone. Commodore Callback 8020. This launch wants to take advantage of this growing trend of some manufacturers of resurrect “dumb phones”: cell phones that are capped as standard so that we can detoxify a little of that addiction that we usually have to screens. And to do this, this peculiar device does something mercilessly: block access to all types of applications and platforms Neither TikTok nor Instagram. The Callback 8020 has internet access, but by default it blocks both access to web browsers and social networks. It does so according to the company’s announcement “at the system level using a technology that is pending patent.” The device is therefore not a friend of Instagram or TikTok, but it does allow access to other internet services, such as maps or reading QR codes. Banned browsers. The brand also has its own app store, called Commostore, and to limit access to unwanted applications they have a white list, and as Simpson said at Ars Technica“social networks and browsers will never enter that white list.” Nothing about doomscrolling. Not only that: they cannot be installed using common installation methods either. sideloading. Although the current owner of the brand states that other applications can be installed through this process, this will be blocked in the case of social media apps or browsers. According to Simpson, “we’ve drawn a clear line in the sand around any app that is aimed at doomscrolling“. To avoid this at all costs, the firm indicates that they have blocked access to certain services at the DNS level “so even if you manage to install TikTok, you will not be able to access its servers.” Sailfish OS as heart. We are facing a device that uses Sailfish OS as its operational system. This development, created in 2012 by the company Jolla, allows you to install and run Android applications (99%, says Simpson), although its focus is privacy. Thus, it is perfectly possible to use tools such as Spotify, Signal or WhatsApp. The bet is completed with a very nice detail: Commodore includes some games from the C64 era to be able to enjoy them on this mobile. Limited but functional. The mobile’s specifications sheet is modest: it has a MediaTek Helio G81 SoC, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB capacity (with microSD slot), 3.25″ internal IPS screen (480×640), 1.77″ external VFD screen, as well as a “Dome-LED” notification system. Connectivity is resolved with LTE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, and we have a 48 MP rear camera and an unspecified front camera that does have autofocus. The battery is 1,550 mAh and recharges via USB-C. Retro notifications. The mobile allows you to receive notifications, but instead of traditional messages in popup format, the Callback 8020 makes use of a small LED screen on the front cover that displays characters with a very retro design reminiscent of the old calculators from the 70s and 80s. Eighties sounds. Audio includes a music player for the 8-bit SID chip, which was used in the original C64. It also has, of course, an integrated DAC, an F radio and a 3.5 mm jack. There are even in-ear headphones included in the box. Shell format, interchangeable shells. The design of the mobile phone itself is most peculiar: it adopts a clamshell format, which makes the interior screen relatively small in size, and it has a physical keyboard and a small directional pad on top of that keyboard. The outer shell can be exchanged. Commodore Callback 8020, in its Founders Edition variant, at $640. Source: Commodore. lor retro is not at all cheap. The price ranges between $500 and $640 depending on the variant chosen — the most expensive is the Founders Edition, with gold tints. It is a high price if one only looks at the specifications and design, but that is not what you pay with this mobile. What you pay is more for the nod to nostalgia and for the system that tries to prevent us from being glued to the screen. We are faced with a different concept, which may be shocking and strange, but which tries to solve a problem and also do so with an original approach. I don’t know if the original Commodore would have made a mobile like that, but one thing is certain: the launch is, to say the least, original, loud and brave. That’s something. In Xataka | While the Spectrum and Commodore 64 were triumphing around the world, there was a terrible problem in Japan: kanji

why Instagram and TikTok are designed to make you hate billionaires’ vacations

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With the imminent arrival of summer, the screens of our mobile phones prepare for the ritual of each year: an incessant avalanche of photographs of celebrities and billionaires exhibiting their opulence. In the coming weeks we will consume thousands of images of celebrities sunbathing on the decks of their megayachts, we will discuss the details of exclusive getaways – surely the honeymoon of Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, newlyweds – and we will witness a level of luxury that is simply unattainable. What changes this season is what those images no longer generate: indifference. This visual hyper-exposition of wealth is no longer harmless gossip magazine entertainment. As an opinion column by The Confidentialincessantly seeing what the rich brag about on the Internet has become “the greatest engine of resentment that humanity has known.” And behind this dazzling showcase, the data reveal an unprecedented social fracture. While ordinary citizens juggle paying the rent or the shopping basket, the wealth of billionaires reached an all-time high of $18.3 trillion in 2025, as revealed by the latest global report Oxfam Intermón. Anatomy of resentment: what happens when you look at that photo To understand why a photograph of a billionaire drinking champagne on a yacht today generates so much hostility—and not just passing envy—you have to turn to psychology. A study published in the scientific journal Cyberpsychology empirically demonstrates that continuous visual exposure to symbols of wealth on social networks pushes users to make constant and involuntary comparisons. The mechanism is precise: Every image of a private jet or superyacht deck triggers what researchers call “relative deprivation.” It’s not that we feel like we’re missing something in the abstract; It is that, by seeing what others exhibit, we feel much more intensely and concretely what we lack. The screen turns statistical inequality into a personal wound. But this is not new. The rich have always existed, and so has envy. The relevant question is another: what has changed in the last decade for resentment to have increased in such a specific and global way? The answer lies not in inequality itself—which has been growing for decades—but in the dose of exposure, which is unprecedented in human history. For centuries, human beings compared themselves to those close to them: the neighbor, the co-worker, the cousin who did better. It was a limited and tolerable horizon of comparison. Social networks destroyed that limit definitively. Today the telephone confronts you with 0.001% of the world’s wealth dozens of times a day, involuntarily, while you have breakfast, on the bus or before going to sleep. Psychologists call this “continuous upward social comparison”: You no longer compare yourself with your real environment, but with the global elite, on a loop and without rest. Relative deprivation is not new. What is historically unprecedented is the frequency with which they rub it in your face. This accumulated frustration, image by image and day by day, is reconfiguring our own identity. In a world where the cost of living suffocates the middle classes, essayist Mark Edmundson argues in the pages of The New York Timesyes that hate has acquired a new social function: it has become a quick way to define who we are. “I hate, therefore I am.” Loathing the elite gives many people purpose in the midst of modern precariousness. What is disturbing is not the phrase, but that it is sociologically accurate. The algorithm, perfect accomplice Social media is not a neutral mirror of reality: it is a machine designed to amplify exactly this type of content. As explained Psychology Today, Posts that use moral or emotional language act as a powerful magnet for hate speech and viralization. The more outrageous an image, the more it is shared; The more it is shared, the more the algorithm recommends it. The result is increasingly aggressive ideological bubbles, fed in a loop. This mechanism is not accidental. The algorithms of platforms like TikTok and Instagram are designed to maximize screen time prioritizing content that generates strong emotional reactions, regardless of whether those reactions are positive or negative. A yacht in Ibiza published by an heir generates more interaction than any neutral content: first impact, then anger, then debate, then virality. The system does not create resentment, but it turns it into fuel and returns it amplified. Interestingly, this dynamic is causing the truly rich to start hiding. The consulting firm Bain & Company, cited by financial magazine Fortunewarns of the rise of the “shame of luxury” (luxury shame): faced with the increase in social tension and collective anger, many elites are choosing to hide their logos and status symbols for fear of public rejection. The yacht is still there; What changes is that it is no longer published. Capitalizing on fury The most immediate danger of this resentment is not the hate itself, but where it is directed. The anger generated by seeing a private jet on Instagram could be channeled into demands for tax justice. Too often, however, it ends up being hijacked by political actors who reorient it towards other objectives. A report from Washington Post documents how far-right influencers deliberately exploit the economic hopelessness of young people: they take the rage of a suffocated generation and divert it not towards billionaires, but towards scapegoats. Class resentment turns into identity conflict. While the working classes fight among themselves, the ultra-rich consolidate their power. According to the report of Oxfama billionaire is today 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than an ordinary citizen. Yachts are not just a symbol of wealth. They are also a declaration of impunity. Perhaps the most accurate diagnosis comes from someone who knows the upper echelons well and is not afraid to say so. In an interview with Guardianacclaimed novelist Yann Martel—author of Life of Pi and self-confessed millionaire—confessed his position with unusual crudeness: “I hate the rich people of this world, of which I am a part (…). Our world is being destroyed by greed and wealth.” The paradox is … Read more

The biggest culprit of children’s addiction to screens is not the TikTok algorithm: it is the parents themselves

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Having children seems to activate a part of the brain that forces us to say the repeated phrase “Leave the machine now,” referring to the cell phone or portable game console. Here, logically, concern about the screen time of the little ones monopolizes the conversations of the most current parents, but the reality is that science is beginning to see that the fault for these behaviors really lies with the parents themselves. A reality. The debate over whether children are born “addicted” to technology fades when we look at the empirical evidence. It’s not just that the devices are designed to capture attention; is that a child’s first and most powerful learning algorithm is to observe their parents who spend the day in front of the screen. Bandura’s theory. To understand why the little ones don’t put down the tablet, you first have to travel back a few decades, to psychologist Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. This theoretical framework, widely validated, establishes that children do not learn primarily by what they are told, but by observation and imitation, especially of those they perceive as close and competent, such as their parents. Literally, we are talking about sponges that do not lose detail of anything. Four phases. In order to learn through this route, it is first necessary for the child to pay attention to the behavior of his or her ‘reference’ adult, such as his or her father or mother. From there, he will begin to retain the pattern made by his caregiver in his memory, almost as a normative behavior, and develop the physical ability to imitate the gesture. But it goes further, since by observing reinforcements, such as their parents laughing when they see the cell phone, an association with a positive stimulus is created. This is really important because you see that doing that action is something that is not dangerous at all, but rather fun and enjoyable. Modern pediatrics. Beyond this theory, a recent meta-analysis Published this year in the prestigious journal JAMA Pediatrics, it has analyzed the impact of the use of technology by parents in the presence of their children. This brings together a total of 21 previous investigations and covers 14,900 participants from 10 countries, empirically demonstrating that there is a direct association between the time that parents spend in front of a screen and the time that their children end up spending with them. But in addition, it has also been seen how it can generate a negative impact on children’s cognition or an increase in externalizing behaviors such as tantrums or anxiety. The cell phone on the table. The disconnection created by the smartphone not only creates a role model, but breaks the two-way interaction that children need for healthy brain development. Something relevant is that 70% of parents admit to being distracted by their mobile phone when they are with their children, and here is a study in Pediatrics in 2014 where this phenomenon was observed; This phenomenon has already been observed in the fast food restaurant environment. According to your data40% of parents were so engrossed in their devices during meals that they ignored their children completely. But even worse was when children tried to get their attention, often escalating their behavior, and simply causing parents to respond more physically or verbally when they felt interrupted. The recommendations. The American Pediatric Association is quite clear pointing out that children under 18 months should completely avoid screens, and in the 2 to 5 year age group it can be introduced for a maximum of 1 hour a day and as long as high-quality and accompanied content is watched. Images | hessam nabavi In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

TikTok now has an answer for those who don’t want to see ads: check out

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Consuming social networks for free and without any type of advertisement is something that has been disappearing for years. Bombarding with advertising to later launch a payment model is something that applications like Instagram learned very well, and now TikTok is beginning to follow in its footsteps. TikTok Ad-Free. TikTok began testing a payment model back in 2023 in the United Statesan idea that did not spread beyond American territory. The company now makes official TikTok Ad-Free in UKopening the ban to expand it to the rest of the regions. How it works. The company has announced that, “in the coming months”, users over 18 years of age will be able to gradually subscribe to the new advertising-free option, TikTok Ad-Free. Those who continue using the free version will see no changes, and will see personalized ads. The price is £3.99 per month, in exchange for not seeing a single ad on TikTok and our data not being used for advertising purposes. It’s something that sounds familiar to us. Instagram Vibes. In 2024, Meta gave his ultimatum: either it was checked out or our information would be used for advertising purposes to show us the relevant advertisements. On Instagram they went a step further, since paying users not only got rid of ads: they got a verification badge and got more “love” from Instagram in terms of the visibility of their own account if they were a content creator. Why is it important. TikTok is in the crosshairs of the European Commissionas you consider your ad library to be non-compliant the Digital Services Law. The social network will have to be especially careful when implementing measures related to ads and data collection, even more so if billing is involved. In the same way, the fact that TikTok has given free rein to its subscription monetization model (although its application is not immediate), closes a circle of services that we use on a daily basis and that, whether we like it or not, force us to checkout if we do not want to see ads. And if not, Tell them to the paid version of WhatsApp. The big question. If you’re wondering when TikTok Ad-Free will arrive in Europe, the answer is that we don’t know yet. What seems inevitable is that this ends up happening, after the test in the United States and its progressive implementation in the United Kingdom. In Xataka | TikTok’s infinite scroll has just entered the EU’s crosshairs: Brussels marks it as “addictive design” and demands change

Generation Z is uploading videos of their work routines to TikTok and Instagram, and it is already a phenomenon

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If we have learned anything from social networks, it is that everything can be contained, including boring office work. After all there are people hooked on toilet cleaning videosso it’s not that strange. Worktok. It’s how these creators, most of them very young, tag the content they publish about their work. Browsing the hashtag we found mostly humorous gags about work life, but digging a little deeper we found all kinds of videos. There are those who tell their routine, those who use it as a space to vent to complain about their bosses and even those who broadcast his dismissal live. There is a subcategory within this trend and it is the ‘Quittok’, that is, young people who tell why they want to resign from their jobs. Some they even record themselves doing it. Viral. It is not an anecdotal phenomenon, the hashtag #worktok It has already accumulated almost 300,000 publications and the total views amount to 1.8 billion. What has led so many people to share details about their work life? The label began to become popular in 2020 during the pandemic. At a time when teleworking was imposed throughout the world, many people began to share their daily lives on TikTok and that also included work. Why is it important. In statements to the BBCAccording to Sara McCorquodale, head of an influencer firm in the United Kingdom, the fact that it has been maintained over time responds to a need to create a community and seek validation online. It’s like looking for that “coffee machine moment” that for many young people does not exist either because they work remotely or because they do not have that connection with their office colleagues. A space of identity. According to McCorquodale, sharing with the world the day-to-day life of work – with its achievements and its dramas – is also a way of reaffirming one’s identity and taking control of the narrative. It is a way of saying that my work life belongs to me and I am going to narrate it as I want, not as the company dictates. It is also a symptom of a broader trend, that of a generation that prioritizes their mental health and well-being over promotions or working hard. They are the opposite of workaholics. Yes, but. Sharing certain company details or recording videos during working hours can cause problems. It’s what It happened to a paint store worker who started recording videos of how he mixed different colors of paint. The company saw the videos and fired him for recording during work hours and using store materials. Primark also fired an employee in the United Kingdom for having recorded TikToks. It doesn’t seem like ‘worktok’ is going to disappear, so both companies and employees will have to adapt and navigate without crossing boundaries. In Xataka | A generation totally disconnected from their work: 80% of “genzers” want to change jobs Image | Vitaly Gariev in Unsplash

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