For the future to stop being scary, perhaps what is necessary is to understand it. With this spirit, Tendencias, the new EL PAÍS project, was born. On the second day of their forum, held this Tuesday at Madrid’s Teatro Platea, they talked about artificial intelligence, health, geopolitics, labor transformation, and business ethics. And social networks, as the audiovisual creators Los Javis began doing this morning.
“Networks have had a huge impact on our lives: we met on Facebook,” said one of them.
The Javis are two audiovisual javiers: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. They stood out with The call and Paquita Salasthey continued with The Poison and now they are with the messiah. At the Tendencias event they chatted with EL PAÍS journalist Manuel Jabois about personal relationships in the digital age.
Artists, also journalists, anyone who has a public job, can now, through networks, be in direct contact with the opinions generated by what they do. Transparency and democratization have been gained, although perhaps winning is not the correct verb. “Is there really more transparency?” Ambrossi asked himself, “I believe that the networks do not reflect reality, I believe that they are moved by a radical engine. Almost no one bothers to write that something seemed OK to them.”
The networks would be, according to the story of these creators, the distorting mirror of the absurdity applied to public opinion. Calvo understood something like this: “Before I went to check what they thought about me, I went through the process of understanding that what they write about you is not what they think about you. The need to constantly value makes people override anyone’s feelings.” The game of social networks is also the game of vanity that so closely borders on insecurity and the desire for recognition. Los Javis have thought a lot about this. “Why do I keep taking selfies so people think I’m handsome? Why do I need that validation?” Ambrossi asked himself.
Adapt to technology
The chief Culture editor of EL PAÍS, Guillermo Altares, recalled the trivia of the film Baturra nobility (Florián Rey, 1935) and how these went from being agricultural tools to becoming the basis for the production of furniture, due to technological obsolescence.
This was the approach of the table The global race for job upgrading. There was talk about how technological advances can “expel” people (or, putting it more mildly, tasks) from the labor market, about the speed with which the technological revolution in which we are immersed happens, about the evanescence of everything: let’s forget of stability and certainties, the world of work will be full of uncertainty and we must learn to adapt to its demands.
“65% of the careers studied by children who are now in early childhood education do not yet exist,” recalled Luis Jesús Pérez López, president of the Social Dialogue Commission for the Promotion of Work, “the labor market is being transformed, as in all industrial revolutions. The speakers agreed on a certain technological fatalism and a certain technoptimism: jobs will be destroyed, yes, but others will be created.
But precariousness is growing. “Today’s young people are not so concerned about security, what really matters to them is that work aligns with something that has meaning in their life. Not only work like a earner, but also,” said Marta Montojo, director of Professional Careers at the Francisco de Vitoria University. The challenge is to adapt the active population to new work realities, not only new, but also constantly changing. “We see things that were impossible and we stop doing things that were natural,” explained Ángel Sáenz de Cenzano, general director of LinkedIn in the Iberian Peninsula, who added: “There will no longer be that linearity of careers, we will live in the need for a constant adaptation.” they call it reskilling.
Geopolitical dependence
The challenge is also presented on the international scene, as reflected in the talk Adaptation to change: geopolitics for a new business scenario, moderated by EL PAÍS Global Affairs correspondent, Andrea Rizzi. “Interdependence is the characteristic today, unlike during the Cold War,” the journalist said.
“Geopolitics, sustainability and technology are the axes around which the long-term strategy of companies must be configured,” said Elena Salgado, former minister and president of the Abertis Foundation. Also three major influential geopolitical events: the rivalry between the United States and China (which drags down Europe), the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. What should companies do? “Take the risks into consideration, compare them with the possibility of an investment, establish alternatives and diversification, and even insurance,” said Salgado.
“Most experts rule out an armed conflict between the US and China,” said Charles Powell, director of the Elcano Royal Institute, although he did not deny the possible turbulence around Taiwan and the China Sea. “Having to choose between the US and China puts us in a very vulnerable situation,” he added. In relation to the global south, “we are at a critical moment, and the Gaza conflict has done a lot of damage,” Powell stated, “we are going to be accused of having a double standard in the conflict between Israel and Palestine and that is going to affect to our credibility with the countries of the global south.”
The responsibility of companies
The philosopher Adela Cortina gave the little talk Citizens and responsible people in global governance. “The company and its social responsibility are great issues of our time. We have seen a turn in this regard. In the 1970s, economist Milton Friedman said that the only responsibility of business was to produce profits for shareholders. We have experienced progress, which must be supported.”
Now companies must not only try to increase profits, but also do so by generating good societies, at least in theory. It has been called capitalism stakeholders the one that cares about all the interest groups surrounding the company’s activity, as pointed out by Edward Freeman and supported by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. “Rather, of all those affected by the activity of the companies,” added Cortina. For the philosopher, this is the concept of social responsibility that has triumphed and the one that must be promoted. The economic and environmental balance are considered, “but we must not forget the social balance. The idea of the triple balance is very positive,” concluded Cortina.
Trends It is a new project from EL PAÍS, with which the newspaper aspires to open a permanent conversation about the great future challenges facing our society. The initiative is sponsored by Abertis, Enagás, EY, Iberdrola, Iberia, OEI, Redeia, Santander, Telefónica and the strategic partner Oliver Wyman.
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