New technology - good or bad?

As with Real Madrid's legendary 14, this year's Mobile World Congress can be summed up as just that: a promise of technologies, such as 5G, which are set to make a splash but which, for now, only offer the potential and attention that pushes companies and institutions to carry out experiments that generate headlines with the following formula: "(Name of a company) makes the first (desired action) with 5G".

Guti's potential was part of a rhetoric that also served to cover his absences, which at this edition of Mobile have been notable both in the fair itself and in everything that surrounds it. Uber and Cabify cars have been absent (inside and outside) contributing to 40-minute waiting times in taxis.

Nor have pro-independence supporters appeared on the scene - except for the timid presence at the gates of the fair of some young people handing out (without much success) yellow posters in English attributed to the international pseudo-organism created adHoc for the trial of the Procés - who remained seated in front of a giant screen in the centre of Barcelona applauding the responses of Jordi Cuixart as if they were tweeting jabs at the prosecutor's office. Nor were there any large advertisements from companies such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook or Google or high-level foreign personalities capable of generating an iconic photo beyond the snapshot that captured Felipe VI's rictus as he looked at Quim Torra during the inaugural dinner.

Also known for his penchant for vice, this year's edition of Mobile has also produced the image of a young foreign woman in impossibly high heels entering a hotel next to a man twice her age and four times her age in mass. According to local media, the demand for prostitution shoots up by 30% during the week and sex-related businesses, such as the Sala Bagdag, offer up to six passes each night at a price of 90 euros plus a drink.

However, Guti was also known for his genius and flashes of quality, for those back-heels that gave Zidane and Benzemá goals, inviting spectators to dream, just as today we dream of the future with multi-screen mobiles, the sharpness of their cameras and the future of technology in general.

By: Alan Mejia Castelan