The Emperor's New Millennial

I know that most millennials weren’t told fairy tales as children, in fact, neither were I, and most of the tales I know I read on my own jejejej. So I’ll briefly tell you this Andersen tale:

Once before an emperor, two individuals claimed to be great tailors and offered to make him a magical suit that only the wise could see. The tailors asked for threads of gold and pretended to be making the magical suit, but when they came before the court to show their progress, neither the emperor nor any of his courtiers saw anything, but they dared not say so for fear that others would think they were fools and therefore couldn’t see the suit.

In the court, the trending topic was #TheEmperor’sNewCloak, everyone was talking about how great it looked, the beautiful colors and complex designs. Of course, no one saw anything at all and everything was made up so others would think they were smart.

The topic became so important that when the cloak was finished, the emperor decided to hold a parade to show the people his new cloak. Of course, the whole city knew about the cloak and when they saw the emperor passing by completely naked, they made comments about how wonderful the new cloak looked.

At least that’s what they did until a child shouted: “Look dad, that man is naked.” To which the dad replied: “That man is the emperor, and he’s not naked, he just isn’t wearing the cloak because you’re a fool.” “So all the fools are seeing the emperor naked?”

After that, the gossip shifted to #IAlsoDon’tSeeIt #TheEmperorIsNaked #I’mAFoolAnd #ThePimpleOnTheEmperor’sButt

Once they realized that everyone, even his courtiers and guards, was seeing him naked, the emperor turned red, ran to his castle, and was never seen again. Neither were the tailors, who disappeared during the parade carrying several kilograms of golden thread.

You know why fairy tales were told to children??? So that when they grew up they would remember and avoid falling into the same mistakes as the characters.

And indeed, many, many, have fallen into the same trap that the emperor did.

A lot is said about the marked difference between millennials and other generations, a difference that seems greater than any other generational gap we’ve seen. The actions and way of thinking of millennials are incomprehensible not only to the elderly, but even to young adults and to other millennials jajjaja.

The mobile technology and the lack of attention from parents are directly accused, but as few understand the world, almost no one can see this invisible suit. The invisible suit of the millennials is not made with threads of gold, but with semantic algorithms.

Today, more entertainment is being generated than a person can consume. There are more newspapers and magazines than a person can read, more movies than a person can watch, more songs than a person can listen to, more discoveries than someone can learn.

It was at the end of the 29th century when Apple saw this problem by starting with iTunes, since its first customers had difficulty finding the music they wanted among so many available options. So they began to use the ancestor of Siri, which they called Genius.

Genius was a set of semantic algorithms designed to gather information about people regarding their musical tastes. These algorithms recorded a large amount of information about the music you listened to, how long, how often, etc., and when you entered the “Genius” section of your iTunes, it would show you suggestions according to your tastes. For that time it was a marvel, and many thought that artificial intelligence had finally arrived.

Since the success of Genius, the number of semantic algorithms has grown exponentially. Today, these algorithms are not only used to show you the songs and movies you like most; on your social networks, they show you the posts that interest you most, suggest friends, and tell you what the current trending topics are. Online stores suggest products to you, maps suggest routes and places to eat, they send you email advertisements, and they show you ads tailored to your tastes on every page you visit.

Semantic algorithms are not only in your computer, tablet, and phone. In the call center from which they call you to offer you insurance, it is a semantic algorithm that decides to call you, at what time, and which agent should offer you the products; they decide how much you should pay in Uber, what the value of the dollar is, what news should be shown on television, what proposals your politicians should make, at what time your flights should depart, what merchandise should be in the mall.

In short, when you were born, friend millennial, we had already given control of our lives to semantic algorithms, so you came into a world in which millions of computers are striving to make your life happier.

However, in their effort, these semantic algorithms have become courtiers who don’t want to admit they’re fools and who can’t see the new clothes or the tailors’ deception. The emperor wasn’t fooled only by these frauds, but by everyone around him who made him believe he was the only fool in the entire empire.

Likewise, these algorithms create an illusion for us, showing us what we like and hiding from us what we dislike. And here is the great difference between the generations before and after Genius:

The previous generations came to terms with the idea that there are people who don’t share our opinion, who do things we don’t like, and that to achieve good things, you first have to face bad things. That the world is very big and that there are many things we ignore and that we will never know.

But in the new generations, the algorithms have taken charge of creating the illusion that all the good is out there, and the bad is little. That no matter what your opinion is, you are the majority and there are many who support you.

Semantic algorithms create around you the image of a perfect world, made especially for you, making you live in a fantasy bubble from which you are incapable of observing the world in its entirety. And this doesn’t affect only millennials who were born and grew up inside these bubbles, but also people from other generations who voluntarily submerged themselves in these spheres because it’s more comfortable to live in them.

Thus, I have met people who believe the phrase “meme blows up the internet” is literal and that it’s nothing more than an isolated phenomenon limited within their semantic bubble. People who believe a popular hashtag can change international policy or that everyone has seen a very funny video and the world changed thanks to a phrase they posted and that everyone shared.

The algorithms will make you believe you’re the wisest, the most beautiful, the most popular, that everyone hates immigrants, that no one wants weapons, that everyone is in a hurry, or that change is just around the corner.

But… What will happen on the day of the parade when the child speaks???

Eventually, the millennials will take control of the world, reality always overtakes fantasy, and the simultaneous rupture of millions of semantic bubbles could result in a great catastrophe. Every animal suffers when it is removed from its habitat, and when we are separated from our bubbles, we will have an epidemic of depression and sadness without precedent in the world.

It’s not bad to live in a semantic bubble, but we must be aware that there is an outside to the bubble, what its size is, and that outside of it, the possibilities, good and bad, are infinite.