Social networks have been with us for more than two decades. However, little education is being provided to our young people on how to use them responsibly. It is not just a potential? problem for young people; the adult population will be faced with changing jobs, applying for a mortgage or a loan at a bank, or applying for a scholarship for their children… all of these can be affected by the use of social networks.

We are not aware of the amount of information we are sending, beyond a photo that may be innocent, to a social network that a priori should not share this information outside the platform, right?

What do we post on social networks?

When we post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, we are not only posting the information we intend to share, but we are also giving away relevant information, such as: days you usually post photos, lifestyle habits/patterns, frequent locations, Are you currently working?… even information about your personal, romantic or work relationships.

It’s no longer just the meme where you upload a photo and you’re at your friend’s house… today your boss can see if you’ve uploaded a photo near a competitor’s office.

It is an issue that does not have an easy solution because, at the end of the day, humans are social animals and as such, they seek acceptance by society. Sharing their experiences, their thoughts, their feelings on social networks seems to be the fastest way to achieve this acceptance.

Black Mirror, dystopia or reality?

It was in Black mirror, the famous Netflix series, where one of the visions in which social networks take on a really dangerous protagonism was shown; it exposes a voting system where people rate your person and could leave you excluded from society if you do not receive enough positive votes.

On the other hand, if you are not part of these social networks, you do not upload content or do not share your Christmas, vacation or travel photos… it seems that you do nothing in your life. What about people who do not want to share, or do not know, or are not interested in sharing their life on social networks?

Could the day come when a humble, hardworking person, with demonstrable income, solvent, but who does not upload any type of content to any social network, is denied a loan for not having a minimum reputation in social networks?

Or even traveling… at the borders. If the policeman/guard at the border cannot verify your person, since you have no presence on social networks…. Would he let you enter the country? How will the absence of information be dealt with?

Information is power, everyone knows that, therefore, I can foresee certain socio/bureaucratic problems with people outside social networks that we will have to solve as a society.

Will they have to learn to share information about their life on social networks in order to travel? And if so… Where will they get their information from? What will be their official source of information? If they were to make queries to platforms like Meta, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and so on…. How will they be able to verify that this data has not been altered by the companies themselves or if you have been hacked (Who uses Facebook today?) and they have posted content that is not legitimate?

It is not a dystopia, it is a reality that is just around the corner.