Former Buenos Aires legislator and Frente Patria Grande activist, Ofelia Fernández, warned of an “apocalyptic social climate” marked by collective anxiety, economic precariousness, and hyper-digital connectivity.
In a reflective tone, Fernández stated that young people live in a “continuous present” without a future, determined by precarious jobs, unstable rentals, and difficulties in saving. “You work in many places at once and you keep leaving… the money is unstable and saving is not common… you live by taking advantage of what you can,” she affirmed.
Addressing mental health, she asserted that there is a “complicity between the digital environment, stress, and collective madness” and warned that the phenomenon manifests strongly in the streets and daily relationships. “We are going crazy and that cannot be avoided as a political issue,” she declared, while questioning the lack of public statistics on the matter.
As an example, she recalled how the design of plazas changed towards “risk-free” spaces, which, in her view, limits formative experiences and fosters social withdrawal.
Fernández also criticized the Peronist approach to work, considering that “their perspective was too narrow” in the face of phenomena like the platform economy and automation.
She also questioned the impact of social networks on relationships: “It happened to me with a lot of people that I see on Twitter and I thought, ‘you’re a terrible idiot’.”
She associated this widespread feeling to a dynamic of constant change: “When the great technique of the Century is the technological disruption of today and more today, the logical mood is anxiety.”
During the program 540°, conducted by Ernesto Tenembaum and María O’Donnell on the Cenital YouTube channel, Fernández stated that technological dependence among young people is linked to insecurity in public space. “For my generation, technological dependence is the child of insecurity and the public space becoming dangerous,” she explained.
Fernández also produced the documentary How to Be Happy, available on YouTube, in which she explores the emotional consequences of digital culture.
