The elderly woman, all dressed up, the way elderly women get dressed up to go do an errand (I've heard them on the train, going to see a grandfather in a nursing home), calls to her husband, a grumpy man with a mustache that seems to indicate he's very much in charge. They are on the station platform, and further down is their daughter, who resembles them greatly. “Dami, it’s ready now,” says the woman, showing him the phone she’s holding. She means she’s finished talking and the device must be his. Dami, who doesn't look like he's called Dami at all, looks at her angrily. “Don’t you know how to hang up? Don’t you know how to hang up?” The daughter turns and puts her finger to her lips. What's curious about this gesture, so common, is that she doesn't direct it at him, but at both of them, as if the woman were also partly responsible. The woman purses her lips and shrinks with shame, just like a scolded dog. She extends her hand further. He then snatches the phone from her with a flourish and, addressing us all and no one, exclaims, in a tone of someone who wants to be heard: “The aunt doesn’t know how to hang up a phone!”

You leave your phone for an hour because you have to do something, like being at the dentist's office or an activity that doesn't let you keep it with you, as other activities do – or you make them do so – like being in a bar with friends, being in a meeting, walking, walking with someone, being on public transport, or participating in a paid TV discussion. When the dentist has finished their work and explains how you should take care of your teeth, you listen, of course, but you go to get your phone (you left it, charging, on the shelf with the dental instruments) and unlock it (how many times a day do you do this gesture?). Without realizing it, you become absorbed, completely absorbed, in one message or another. A message as important as what the dentist is telling you, but more addictive, because it's on the screen. Everything is more addictive on the screen. If you've arranged to meet a friend who is telling you about her marital breakup, you'll listen to her halfway, because on WhatsApp someone will tell you about a marital breakup. And the WhatsApp marital breakup will always excite more parts of your brain than the one in front of you. On your phone, it will be fun to play online billiards. The real thing, you won't think of playing.

The traffic light we are waiting to turn green contains LED lights made with rare earths. When we call dad or waste time watching videos on social networks of boys falling –and getting hurt, but in the background you can hear people laughing, without any empathy– we use a mobile phone that is made, in part, of rare earths. When we have an X-ray, rare earths are involved and save thousands of photographic films. If we need to have prostate surgery, the laser (thanks to rare earths) does the job.What are rare earths, however? They are a series of chemical elements essential for today's technology. "They belong to the group of critical minerals, the market of which is mainly controlled by China. They have high economic interest and are in a situation of supply risk," explains the curator and former director of the Museum of Geology Valentí Masachs, Joaquim Sanz. "The first rare earth element to be discovered was yttrium, in the 18th century, and the last, promethium, in 1945. Before, all minerals were called earths and these chemical elements rare earths because their usefulness was not known and they rarely appear concentrated in deposits, which complicates their exploitation," emphasizes Joaquim. Now we do know what they are for. And they have so many uses! So, they are neither earths nor rare.This is one of the many things learned in this magnificent geology museum located at the Escola Politècnica Superior d’Enginyeria de Manresa. It is the UPC's geology museum. Students and professors of the degree in mineral resources engineering and their recycling are fully involved. They conduct workshops and guide school visits, and exhibit the results of their research.Pedagogy is part of the essence of the museum. Professors who bring students there, from 5 years old to university age, find it easy. Worksheets also help –for different ages– which are available to everyone at www.geomuseu.upc.edu."If the consumption of non-renewable resources continues to grow indefinitely, these resources will run out, and future generations will have nothing profitable left on Earth," states David Parcerisa, a doctor of geology and museum curator. "We need to investigate how to improve the recycling rate of minerals. For example, copper, whose recycling is not 100% efficient, and we still need to extract it. Copper is used to make electric cables that light bulbs, for our car to run... It's one of the most prized metals, also by thieves and the military industry (bullets are made from it)," says Joaquim Sanz when we are in front of radioactive minerals –uranium, thorium, and radium. They are found inside a display case protected to prevent them from being exposed to radiation. On the other hand, you can touch a meteorite the size of a hand. It is the so-called Toluca meteorite; it was found in this locality in Mexico. David invites me to bring a magnet close to it. And it certainly attracts it! This meteorite is 93% iron.The most successful room in the museum is tiny. It has two display cases where a few minerals, rocks, and fossils are exhibited. I press a switch and the samples appear illuminated, thanks to a long-wave ultraviolet lamp that I just turned on. Of course, they are fluorescent minerals. The calcite from Franklin, for example, is dressed in a reddish hue.Next I press another button and... How beautiful! The Mexican calcite takes on an intense pink color thanks to the short-wave ultraviolet light I have turned on. And when I turn it off, the light continues to be seen for a few seconds. It is phosphorescent.At the museum, also find minerals that have fallen into disuse. For example, mercury, which was once the king of thermometers. It is prohibited to use it due to its toxicity. "If it is thrown into the sea, the fish –who don't know it's toxic– they eat it, of course. And we, by eating fish, ingest small doses of mercury," says Nor Sidki Rius, a mining engineer and curator of mineralogy at the museum, who also accompanies me.The museum is not just about minerals. It is also about paleontology, which is actually also a discipline of stones: fossils. The most spectacular element in this area is a large fossilized mammoth tusk. "This tusk was discovered in 1957 during quarrying work on the Manresa hill of Puigberenguer. The extraction work was carried out by Valentí Masachs, a geologist recognized who years later would make this museum a reality and would be its first director", explains Josep Biosca, curator of paleontology. I leave the museum enriched with a few experiences, such as having seen the difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence. Don't miss the opportunity to visit it; it's very different from classic geology museums!Beyond the exhibition halls

The activity of the Valentí Masachs Geology Museum goes beyond the exhibition halls. It organizes visits where geology is the protagonist, not only in the field but also in the city of Manresa itself. The museum has designed an itinerary that allows you to know what rocks some of the building facades in Manresa are made of; it explains what type of stone they are (sedimentary, magmatic...), their origin... Some even have fossils embedded in them (in the limestones of Sant Vicenç de Castellet). Some come from Finland or Brazil. In addition, many school visits combine a visit to this museum with other visits, such as the Manresa Museum of Water and Textiles, the Can Font Water Centre, or the Cardona salt mines.

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“The beaches, which should be a place of tranquility, have been transformed into a space where you have to keep an eye on mobile phones and try to guess if a person is using it to look at Instagram or if they are actually taking photos or videos of your children,” explains Laura Ferrer, a specialist in conscious and emotional sexual education for children, youth, and adults. The widespread presence of mobile phones, cameras, and social networks has changed the way many families experience children's swimming in public spaces like the beach. What a few decades ago could be experienced with more naturalness – small naked children playing in the sand or entering and leaving the water – today coexists with a new concern: what if someone photographs or records the child without permission? And where could that image end up? Ferrer's practice is increasingly receiving families who have suffered or are suffering unpleasant situations on the beach and who live in fear of the non-consensual dissemination of images of their children. “It’s not paranoia, it’s real, it’s happening and it’s very sad. We are moving to ensuring that our privacy is not stolen from the sand,” warns Ferrer. According to the therapist, these concerns have reached her from families she works with from various parts of Catalonia, Galicia, and northern Spain. Children's privacy, more exposed

Although there is no comparable data to measure the extent to which this habit has changed, many families and professionals perceive a change in the way childhood is lived in public spaces. “A daily photograph that may seem innocent at first glance – for example, at the beach, in a bikini or swimsuit – can end up being reused with artificial intelligence tools or circulating in criminal environments for the exchange of child sexual abuse images,” warns Irene Montiel, professor of Law and Political Science at the Open University of Catalonia and researcher at the VICRIM group. The current regulations on data protection do not establish specific regulations for spaces such as beaches or swimming pools, but rather apply the general framework on the right to one's own image, privacy, and data protection. There are situations in which a person may appear incidentally in a photograph taken in a public space, but the general principle is that the capture and, above all, the dissemination of identifiable images require special caution, even more so when minors are involved. “In the case of minors, it would not be permitted to photograph them, as the aim is precisely to protect their image and privacy. Since these are public spaces, we must be aware that people may appear in our photographs at any time, but the general principle is that no one should be able to take a photo of someone else without authorization,” explains Francisco Pérez Bes, deputy of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). In the case of minors under fourteen years of age, if a photo is to be taken of them, authorization must always be given by parents or legal guardians.More eyes: when it's no longer just the mobile phone recording

But the challenge, adds Pérez Bes, is no longer just mobile phones. “There are increasingly more devices with a conventional appearance that can be used for recording. For example, smart sunglasses that incorporate photographic and video cameras. This threatens our right to privacy and makes it increasingly difficult to identify whether we are being recorded or not,” he warns. For Ferrer, the debate should not fall solely on families, but also on how we protect shared spaces. “Perhaps we will have to start implementing mobile-free beaches, as is already done in some nightclubs, to regain freedom and avoid digital exposure,” he suggests. The line between protecting and scaring

Faced with this situation, many families opt to put swimsuits or some piece of clothing on children. “Families cover them with sun protection clothing, using it as a shield so they are not so exposed to a sexualizing gaze. But, of course, the internal moral dilemma as parents is there: ‘I want my son to be able to go naked, calm and relaxed, but at the same time I am teaching him that his body is not to be shown’,” reflects Ferrer. For his part, Montiel considers that measures must be taken and the most vulnerable protected by setting limits if necessary: “Thirty years ago it was not common to see so many mobile phones or electronic devices and we did not feel so exposed. Now, anyone can take a photo or record a video without you noticing. We have to have a little more awareness and set limits, we should not fall into collective panic, but we must transmit values of care and respect for our own body”.Ferrer recommends looking for less crowded beaches and quiet spaces and, if nudism aligns with family values, opting for contexts where this practice is lived more naturally. Precisely, recent information on nudism in Catalonia suggests that the naturist collective perceives a reduction in the practice and links it, among other factors, to shame and fear of exposure on social media. "Any public space can be a risk context, considering that there are people looking for this type of images. It's not about living in fear but about being aware of it," explains Montiel, also a professor in the criminology degree at the UOC.

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The other day, at a social gathering (they call it baby shower and I haven't been able to sleep since), there was a mother with a small child in a stroller. She was next to me, so I could see how she was looking, all worried, at children's reels on her mobile phone (a phone the size of the middle slice of a rustic loaf). To spare myself the sight of the creature passing, with its little fingers, disturbing frogs with a narco accent, I made a joke. The kind of jokes you make to kids. Then the mother looked at me, condescendingly, and said: "You'll be a good grandmother." If my daughter made a joke to the same creature or said things to it, the deceased wouldn't tell her: "You'll be a good mother."

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What is the impact of digital environments on children and adolescents? Everyone has an approximate idea of the effects that early or intensive exposure to electronic devices can have, but until now there was no study with such an important and representative scope as the one just published by Unicef Spain, in collaboration with the University of Santiago de Compostela, the General Council of Computer Engineering and the entity Red.es, and which was presented this Friday at Palau Macaya in Barcelona.From the report, titled Childhood, Adolescence and Digital Well-being. An Approach from Health, Coexistence and Social Responsibility it is inferred that the presence of mobile devices is important. The first mobile phone is acquired on average at 11.02 years old, which means that between 5th and 6th grade, almost 40% of children have a smartphone. A figure that doubles in three months and rises to 78.3% the summer before starting secondary school, as if it were a kind of transitional ritual towards secondary school.

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In Europe, the debate about children, adolescents, and technology is intensifying. There is increasing pressure to limit access to social networks and strengthen age verification mechanisms. This shift responds to a legitimate concern. But, even so, the question remains too simple: how many hours do they spend in front of a screen? Reducing the problem to a sum of hours is convenient, but it distances us from what truly matters.

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It was at Sants station, contemplating with delight a very young father with a backward baseball cap and sagging pants who was spasmodically moving his baby's stroller. A baby, needless to say, that came as a surprise, not being "planned." At first, I thought the father was traveling alone with the child, but soon a girl, also very young, appeared, sipping a soda. "I come from Accessorize", she said. And immediately, to the baby: "I've brought you a little something". She gave him a lollipop, without opening it.

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On March 10, 1876, 150 years ago, the first telephone call was made, a milestone that forever changed our way of communicating. “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you,” was the phrase that the Scottish inventor and scientist, Alexander Graham Bell, conveyed to his assistant, Thomas Watson, just three days after patenting his invention, which progressively relegated the telegraph, used since 1844. Quickly, that system became popular to become a mass communication medium that we all carry in our pockets today.

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Working in digital marketing, and running my own company, often makes it difficult to separate work from family. When I was little, I helped prepare things in my grandmother's shop, and this family business was a place where everyone could contribute, even a child, no matter how small.

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Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the internet, has complained about the massive use of addictive algorithms on social media: he would ban social networks and phones for anyone under 16.

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I read in the NOW The conclusions of the latest Youth and Gender Barometer. It asks about partner control, and here, of course, the device called mobilewhich is the center of modern relationships. We meet because we start following each other on Instagram and break up via WhatsApp. If we look at the figures, 32% of young women say their partner has gotten angry because they didn't immediately answer messages or calls, compared to 17.5% of young men. It makes me laugh that it's emphasized that it's young women. Older women can go six months without replying, and their partner won't even notice. But here's the thing: 27% of women say they've checked their partner's phone, compared to 17% of men. 26.6% of women have told their partner who they can and can't talk to, compared to 17% of men.

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France's battle to keep children and teenagers away from screens and social media has taken another step forward. The National Assembly passed a law at midnight prohibiting access to social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram for those under fifteen, and banning mobile phone use in schools. The law must now go to the Senate for final approval, but President Emmanuel Macron has requested expedited processing so that it can be definitively approved within a few weeks and take effect on September 1st. "Because our children's brains are not for sale. Not on American platforms, not on Chinese networks. Because their dreams cannot and should not be dictated by algorithms," Macron stated in a message to X.

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On January 26th, a century ago, John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer, gave the first public demonstration of television in London before members of the Royal Institution. He had built the device himself, based on a previous invention, the Nipkow disk, created in 1884 by the German Paul Nipkow. A reproduction of John Logie Baird's device can be seen at the Science Museum in London. It had low resolution and the image was small, not much larger than a modern mobile phone screen. In terms of size, in some ways, we've gone back to the beginning.

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They all arrive at daycare by car, driven by their father, mother, sometimes grandparent, or sometimes another parent. All of them, securely strapped into their car seats, carry beloved toys and often a bottle or juice they sip through a straw. On the back of the passenger seat, they have a holder for their mobile phone or tablet. During the journey, they watch cartoons. When the broadcast stops because there's no signal, they let someone know. And when an advertisement comes on, they babble, "Announcement," because they know their parents have the power, from the seat in front, to reach out and skip it. Those who travel by subway or bus hold a tablet or their mother's mobile phone in their little hands and also watch cartoons and also let someone know when the broadcast stops, for example, because they're going through a tunnel with no signal. And then the mothers or fathers or the babysitter who brings them explain, in a pedagogical way, that "There's no signal" and that the cartoons will be back on shortly. And sometimes, they babble: "...chura," which means "no signal" in children's language.

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A pioneering study in Spain has just shed light on how children and teenagers use mobile phones and the digital environment. One of the findings highlighting the excessive and premature use of mobile phones by teenagers is that eight out of ten fifth-grade students say they already use social media—and among young people between 10 and 20 years old, this figure is almost universal (92.5%). The study, published this Tuesday and conducted by UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry for Digital Transformation, Red.es, the University of Santiago de Compostela, and the Council of Computer Engineering, surveyed 100,000 young people across Spain to understand the extent to which an entire generation uses screens and the internet. The large-scale survey reveals that eight out of ten students get their first mobile phone at age 11, and that nine out of ten secondary school students own a mobile phone.

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Today I would like to talk to you about something that has been observed for some time and that, slowly, has been sneaking in through the back door until it has settled into our lives.

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