Between Life and Oblivion

It’s my second visit to Argentina, and how happy I am to return!

I’m here for the South American Business Forum, a student-run conference for 100 young people from across Latin America and around the world, hosted by the Instituto Technologico de Buenos Aires. Its mission is to inspire today's and tomorrow's leaders to reflect on their role in building a sustainable future. Through collaboration and the exchange of ideas, the conference leaders aim to create opportunities that drive enriching and lasting impact from South America to the world.  

Now in its 21st year, this program offers a three-day journey of inspiration, networking, and learning, and I was delighted to offer a keynote address and a workshop. The conference is run by college students, and my host was Pilar Gonzalez Barreiro, a young woman who handled all the logistics for my visit with professionalism, warmth, and charm. 

The opportunity to talk personally with participants and learn about their deepest hopes, fears, and dreams was a real treat. This is an ambitious group of people who are well-equipped and ready to seize the opportunity to re-imagine the future. Many harbored an interest in digital media platforms, education, economics, and activism.

The conference was organized around the theme, Between Life and Oblivion, with three interrelated topics:

Dilemma of Deception: Reality is fragmented and its shards are fueled by algorithmic amplification. How do people decide what deserves to be believed —and what must be questioned?

Meaning Mirage: With instant gratification available in a sea of fleeting distractions, self-realization becomes blurred. How to find lasting meaning in life?

Thread of Perception: The constant culture of feedback pushes people to shape themselves in order to fit in. How should we live?

Many of the speakers at SABF 25 addressed these issues, including Daniel Leslie, founder of Reflexions, a digital innovation lab; Gonzalo Banez, journalist at Todo Noticias, Argentina; Stephanie Soetendal, global AI entrepreneur; and Yeshi Milner, Founder of Data for Black Lives.

In my talk, I used a problem-solution structure that helped people see how media literacy is fundamental competency that addresses all of these important problems:

The solution: in the family, school, workplace, and in civic life, we must use practices of consuming and creating media that advance critical thinking, communication, creativity, and collaboration.

In my talk, I noted some of the new questions that we must be asking about AI chatbots as a new type of interactive media. I even created a simple animated chatbot who pulled back the curtain on social media influencers, reflecting on my social responsibilities in appropriating the image of an influencer to create my chatbot, which offered a critical commentary on the nature of social media influencers on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

In my small group workshop entitled, “Teach Media Literacy to Anyone,” I demonstrated three simple strategies for introducing media literacy in the home, school, workplace, and in civic life. One activity involved students in using the ML Smartphone to critically analyze a meme:

Discussion got deep as conference participants examined the ways in which the “then and now” paradigm oversimplifies a complex reality. They commented on the stereotypical depictions of both students and teachers, using “reality check” to comment on the distorted depictions of schools presented in both images. Some participants made inferences about the potential motives of the meme’s author, who may have wanted to comment on gender, power, and schooling in relation to controversies about values and ideology in public schools. Was this post beneficial or harmful? Together, we all wondered about the context, recognizing that more details about where, when and why this meme was posted would shape and refine our analysis and insight.

As a culminating activity, students selected a social media post from their own feeds and offered a brief commentary. Check these out here.

It’s simply impossible to be pessimistic about the future after participating in an event like this. These young people have the ambition, curiosity, and creativity to make services and products that meet the complex needs of people living in the 21st century.