Loss of social networks affects people emotionally in different ways

The emotional impact that could be caused by the suspension of the service of communication platforms depends on three situations: how much the user depends on this technology to sell, advertise or promote something; how long he/she has been using them; or if he/she is a beginner in their use and has not yet developed the confidence required to use them.

Professor Emeritus of the School of Psychology, Juan José Sánchez Sosa, affirmed the above and said that those who use them for more than half of their day and whose interpersonal, professional, school and academic relationships depend on these systems, may be affected.

For those who carry out numerous activities through these platforms, the impact could have been important "and if we add that some of these people do not have the normal skills of emotional self-regulation, the consequence of the misfortune will be emotionally more important, that is the other end of the curve," said the expert.

However, in those individuals with good emotional regulation, with stable family relationships, without problems that stress them more than usual, and who have ways of coping with the temporary suspension of networks, the effect of this event or the disappearance of service is less.

It is to be expected that some will have an extreme reaction, such as anxiety, anger, or sadness that may go beyond what normally happens to an individual; on the other hand, some perhaps think that "these things happen, it will go away, I will recover what I may have lost because of this, etc.". In short, he pointed out, the global failures of these services cause minimal emotional effects on users.

The "red lights are on"

Violeta Rodríguez del Villar, a specialist at UNAM's Institute of Economic Research, recalled the recent collapse of socio-digital networks which, she said, had a global cost of 968 million dollars, 161.1 million per hour, according to data from the NetBlocks network, as well as 13 million dollars in Mexico, equivalent to approximately 260 million pesos.

The impact on the world economy was significant and "lights the red lights" on the importance of the decisions to be taken regarding the use of these social networks from the regulatory point of view. "Unfortunately, governments will be increasingly limited in their ability to regulate them, because any decision they make, no matter how small, could affect the domestic economy".

In that sense, they have completely lost their ability to regulate them and they cannot dictate what Facebook and the other social networks do because they are private property, their ability to regulate them is limited, the most they can do is ban their use, as China did. Although this could have a great impact on the domestic economy, it would mean giving up the use of a technology that makes suppliers competitive and they would leave the market.

In a globalized economy that is interconnected and where national borders are becoming increasingly meaningless, "the most it can do is to impose taxes on the owners of these digital platforms, although it would affect the users, rather than the owners. The government's regulatory capacity is really limited".

The specialist commented that practically the entire supply chain of goods and services, both for inputs and final goods, are agreed through the Internet, which makes it a technological instrument that revolutionized global economic life, balancing the importance of time and opportunity against geographical distances; a change that places us in a new paradigm from the economic point of view, she said.

Paper vs e-mail

According to the report Number of e-mail users worldwide 2017-2024 by Statista, a company that offers statistical data collection, analysis, and distribution services on more than 80 thousand topics, in 2020, the number of worldwide e-mail users amounted to three thousand 900 million; it is expected to increase to four thousand 48 million in 2024.

Hugo Sánchez Gudiño, an academic at the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Aragón, pointed out that the revolution in communications brought about by new technologies, including e-mail, has affected physical mail, although relatively since the pandemic has promoted a particular model for purchasing and delivering goods and documents based on a combination of the use of the Internet and traditional messaging.

Although the new forms of mail offer the possibility of generating mail that allows greater instantaneous interaction between people and their social groups, private physical letters, for example, will always have a special, more human, and tangible touch, as they are an increasingly less common writing practice.

E-mail, although it provides greater interaction, is fast, easy to use, and accessible from anywhere, is too fragile a means of communication. "Let's not forget that of these millions of e-mails that circulate on the net every day, a significant part of them are junk, fake news and, consequently, disinformation," warned Sánchez Gudiño.

It is worth noting that, according to figures from the Mexican Postal Service, from January to August 2021, this instance handled almost 220 million pieces; 191 million were national and 29 million international.

Likewise, it offers coverage to 97 percent of the population; that is to say, it serves more than 122 million inhabitants in the national territory, has a presence in 2,233 municipalities (in total there are 2,469), with a network of 1,344 offices and a delivery force of more than 7,000 letter carriers.

With this infrastructure, SEPOMEX handles almost one million pieces daily, which are transported through its logistics network of more than 1,500 postal routes and circuits.

Source: UNAM