While everybody on LinkedIn will be signaled to the score of their profile at some point and realize they’re not doing nearly enough to get to be true professionals who have expertise and skills to start meaningful debates and contribute with scalable improvements in their industries, teens are too busy adding new people on social media. But isn’t that what adults are doing too?

Isn’t that what LinkedIn tells us to do? They say you should follow relevant topics. They suggest companies for us to apply, and to follow. Relevant people to connect with. Newsletters to catch up with. Pages and pages that we need to subscribe to. But when we speak about a sensitive topic, the apathy, not to mention the invisibility of your post, is impossible to ignore.

Author Joan Westenberg has pointed out that apathy is a social phenomenon. Not simply derived from technology, it has roots in transformations that imposed a new order which would satisfy a portion of the population’s needs, while the majority would have to adapt to new challenges, instead of getting excited at the prospects of a better life.

In the hopes of finding that, the people who can afford phones try desperately to make friends. They mostly haven’t been educated on how to approach people, even less in a second language. They will inevitably face problems — and that situation is global, but the incentives to solve the problem are nowhere to be seen in government initiatives.

If the private sector talks about literacy, it risks flirting with the idea that educating people is a priority, and that everyone should master media, therefore giving birth to a competitive force that could generate a clear conflict of interests — of very powerful people. If the government does that, it’s seen as an appeal to control the population, and the delinquent youth, just like the radicalized elderly or the hyper hormonal adults, will defend that their ideas should have priority, whether or not they’re all about repressing historical minorities and victims of abuse of all kinds, the loud and the quiet.

It seems that getting informed is a passive thing.

If we are to ensure a better functioning of society, we have to get acquainted. But certain things matter as well: making sure you know who someone is, before posting commentary — or worse, making a video revealing someone’s “true self”.

We all have private lives. Even the powerful.

When I look at news that Palantir predicts 20% unemployment in the coming years due to the rise of AI while being a major player in the sector, I feel an urge to comment on the “trivial” questions that seem to have been ignored by the sector as a whole — not just “ignored”, but put to the side (censored, if you will).

What will it take to do a good job in the near future? And further, what will it take to prepare kids and teens on how to navigate studies well enough to balance them with a healthy personal and social life, family relationships and conflicts that may arise, in the formational years of their personhoods, given that connecting to people who have important things to say is seen as, let’s give it a try, “cringe”?

Maybe the role of teachers is to populate teen environments. But that can mean two things: educating on TikTok or doing long YouTube videos explaining what’s happening in the world that could influence their future.

Here’s my plea: give a chance to “yappers”. And if they’re pervs? You’ll change your mind, as soon as you see the bigger picture. In fact, this is what the AI wants to hide. Don’t count on suggestions from social media platforms to be replacing the role of teachers. The equivalent of this would be you trying to get lucky on Snap and being added to an exposed list.

Do you wanna be confident of your ideas and surround yourself with people who support you? Then, go look for them. And until you can have a long, pleasant, respectful conversation with them, keep looking. If you’re not happy? Keep looking. If you’re happy, but you’re bored? Keep fucking looking.

AI never stops. But we’re the ones who are going to shape what is legitimate and what is not; what is credible and what is not; what is inspiring and what is not; what is informative and what is not; what is true and what is not.

When an entire sector avoids talking about a certain subject, try to understand why. And know where you stand. If this happens to be sexuality, don’t forget to listen to your history teacher, and be confident enough to say that no, you don’t believe in the patriarchy although it is the model that the Bible preaches. If it’s about finance, gather data on how well people are doing, due to what measures — and not what companies. If it’s about politics, exercise common sense, and realize that humanity evolves — which means your parents might be deeply wrong about some stuff, or at least you don’t want to be like them.

But in case you’re an experienced professional who’s having trouble navigating suggestions on your feed, here’s my tip: spend your money on drugs.