La Voz de Galicia – March 26, 2020 →
Sometimes, I think about how complex it must be to grow up in the era of social media, of connecting through the internet, in the era of «likes» and «dislikes.» I also think about what would happen if suddenly, any day, the internet would be “switched off” and we would find ourselves disconnected. Can you imagine how many more books we could read? How much more time we could spend on things that truly matter? And how many cruel comments and insults would be spared?
Without a doubt, this hyperconnection brought about good, incredible things. And there is already a generation that cannot imagine a world without the internet, without immediate access to information, without YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all those networks whose names I don’t even know. On the other hand, there are also people whose life would not change much without the internet. But I, especially this year where I resent in a strange way the tyranny of technology and social (and antisocial) media, am beginning to think I would be able to disconnect. I ask myself what my plan would be, and how my life would change without picking up my cell phone to get my bearings or to look on Google the meaning of the word «anguish.»
A year and a half ago, the idea that a global pandemic would stop the world and make people stay at home without ever leaving it almost seemed like a science fiction story. In the same way, a generation grew up exposed to what others would say in the digital world, life without social networks that take up more mental space than real networks would also seem like science fiction to them. Sometimes I wish that they, and we, could be capable of disconnecting from them, even if it is to feel the world as it is, and not like we are told it is.
