My last post leaving facebook was a mess. I want to be clear that I enjoy learning about activities, milestones and opinions of family and friends. But it was the other part of facebook, the “algorithm” that continual foists garbage content on members, demanding eyeball time, that drove me away. I will admit, that with the build up to the United States Presidential election, I spent a lot of time scrolling. Both in FB and YouTube, I learned to scroll, and scroll, and scroll….. and scroll (and time slips away). No more. I am done with that.
Catastrophic Flooding in Spain
I was in Spain during the recent United States (US) election. I learned of Trump’s victory via Spanish news television, but it was only a side note due to the catastrophic flooding along the Mediterranean where hundreds of people lost their lives, thousands their homes and many more their livelihood. In one particular area near the city of Valencia, more than 15 inches of rain fell in an hour (400 liters/sq meter)! Think about that a little bit – 15 inches in an hour!! And coming off a downhill slope with ravines leading to the Mediterranean Sea and shoreline communities!!? Serious flash floods tore apart communities and left devastation that will take years to fix and billions in investment. So, while the US election is important world wide, Spain was focused on the news and tragedies involved with the destruction of mountain and coastal communities near the cities of Valencia and Malaga.
Smart Phones, Mental Health and Spain
People in Spain are more patient and tolerant of each other as compared to people here in the US (lately). In Spain, everyone is entitled to their opinion and in general, nobody bothers others about their politics. I should mention an important caveat – that “campaign periods” for elections are restricted to 15 days in Spain! So within two weeks, political candidates have to communicate their positions to the electorate via ads, posters, etc, and then a general vote is held. 15 days!! Not four years like here in the States. There are other differences also, but that is for another day.
And in Spain at least, they are taking steps to control or reduce the damage of social media and ad-personalized data feeds that lead to mental health issues, especially for children and young adults. First, as part of the European Union (EU), Spain requires cookies approval before personal data is handed to marketing companies. Arriving from the US and using a browser in Spain, you will be prompted at every site you visit to “accept all cookies” “reject all non-essential cookies” or “manage cookies”. I usually reject all non-essential cookies which only lasts while in the EU.
Second, Spain is advancing new policies aimed at protecting children online, including measures affecting smartphone use. Proposed initiatives include:
- Parental controls by default: Soon, Smartphones sold in Spain will be required to have parental controls enabled automatically, allowing families to manage children’s access to potentially harmful content.
- Raising Data Consent Age: The minimum age for children to give consent for the processing of personal data will be increased from 14 to 16 years.
- Combatting Harmful Digital Content: Legislation will criminalize the sharing of pornographic content with minors and the creation of deepfake content involving children.
- Digital Restraining Orders: New legal tools will ban certain individuals from contacting others online.
These policies are part of broader efforts to protect children from the mental health risks and other negative impacts associated with unrestricted smartphone and social media use. A public awareness campaign and training for educators and healthcare professionals are also planned to help address these issues proactively. The measures align with similar legislation in other EU countries, such as France and the UK. I will not hold my breath for something similar in the USA.
What does the future hold after the Election?
While in Spain, I finished reading an apocalyptical novel about the end times of a fictional empire, and I ran across a couple of thoughts about the importance of faith and trust that I want to share.
Faith: Having faith means that it doesn’t matter what happens, because you trust someone is watching and will make it alright.
Trust: Faith in another, giving them power over you, power to hurt you, but trusting they will do the right thing.
Honestly, I do not have faith in newly elected administration (Trump and his appointed cabinet). I don’t believe they have the best interests of our country at heart. Nor do I trust that in the end, they will do the right thing by the American people. I think we are headed down the highway to hell and it is a race between the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle our democracy, and the speed at which Republicans plugin and recognize the damage done, and then ally with democrats and independents to stop the destruction of our country.
It will be a close thing. But I hold the hope that there are many decent people who voted for Trump (for many different reasons) that will change their positions as things unravel, and join with democrats and independents to save our democracy. Maybe I am a dreamer. I hope not. But that’s my hope and I am sticking to it! It will take a coalition of all political parties to handle the future. So let’s start thinking on that.
Please pay attention people. Be tolerant of others and aware of what is happening at the State and National levels.
Note: I wrote on my last FB post, that I would not write about politics and I was serious. But now, I realize that won’t work for me. I tried to write an article about the floods in Spain, but I ran into politics. I thought about a couple of other topics, but I realized that I won’t be able to write about anything, unless I can express some opinions, and a lot of my opinions touch on politics, the economy, history and state of society in general. So I officially retract my promise to not write about politics – however I will do my best to be as balanced and agreeable as possible.
High Desert Explorations 