argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Technology
Be on social media?
Diana Franco Eguren 2023ko urtarrilaren 26a

Many years ago, thanks to the interview classroom of the Audiogalaxy platform I had the opportunity to chat with different people from Europe and get to know Gothic metal music. I became fond of music, but more of the hand of other people to meet new things. Then came the chat platforms and social media, the content videos, the podkasts...

At first because of shame, then because of the need to count most of life's events -- I spent hours and hours on the platforms. Now, with mobiles, the way you're on platforms has changed, you don't have to sit in front of the screen, but you're always inside the platform.

In 2018, I stopped feeding social media. Over the years I have understood better when it is vulnerable, I have understood better the degree of attention that people need to pay to the business models of some corporations, and I have better understood the limited life time I have ahead.

I have been invited to a reflection group on young people and social media. The main concern of the group is that young women acquire the space of social networks. Why that space? Why not create other spaces? It is a reality that young people use social networks. They build their image of the world from there, they have the way to create and maintain relationships. They understand social networks as instruments when they really are services that depend on others and interests.

Human beings have an idea of belonging to society. This idea is not the same for everyone, and in the case of young people, it seems that social networks come into this idea. Therefore, the non-use of networks does not appear to be a short-term solution for them. Young women are suffering some damage in this image. How do you remake that image? What “journey” do young people have to do to avoid the interests of these platforms and use the networks in the healthiest possible world? Does the reconstruction of the idea of belonging to society involve the reconstruction of technology for young people?