Reflections

About Building the Identity of Future Populisms

Future populisms must come to power with their identity constructed (which does not mean stagnant or definitive) and a common project in the form of “minimum ethical agreements” that allow them to navigate the waters of the coming junctures. Such agreements cannot be so general that they become empty signifiers that can be “filled” by any content such as “equality”, “social justice” or the “defense of national sovereignty”. They must be translated into concrete agreements, such as, for example, the nationalization of the waterway, the position to be taken vis-à-vis the IMF, or the compensation of devaluations through the use of withholdings and transfers.

Carlos Andujar

About a New Protectionism

The processes of reshoring, nearshoring, and friendshoring are becoming more frequent and free trade agreements are more limited. Protectionism is back.

Andrés Lerner

About Platforms That Affect Children’s Mental Health

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube were formally denounced by New York City Mayor Eric Adams for “encouraging a mental health crisis among minors nationwide.” The lawsuit alleges that the companies intentionally designed their platforms to manipulate and addict children and teens to social media apps, with features including:

• Use algorithms to generate feeds that keep users on platforms longer and encourage compulsive use.
• Using gambling-like mechanisms in app design, which allow for anticipation and craving for “likes” and “hearts,” and also provide seamless, personalized streams of content and ads.
• Manipulating users through reciprocity: A social force, especially powerful among teens, that describes how people feel compelled to respond to one positive action with another positive action. These platforms leverage reciprocity, for example, by automatically informing the sender when their message was viewed or sending notifications when a message was delivered, encouraging teens to return to the platform again and again, and perpetuating online engagement and immediate responses.

More than 38% of New York high school students reported feeling so sad or hopeless in 2023, noting that they stopped doing their usual activities.

Página 12, February 16, 2024