“Lo que queremos es venganza": cómo las redes sociales alimentan la violencia armada entre adolescentes

A digital drawing, made with black pencil and red and neon-blue gouache, shows a teenager standing in the center. The figure’s human head has been replaced with a red rose, which is losing its petals. The rose petals fall around the figure with drops of water, symbolizing tears. The figure’s body is half within a broken smartphone, the frame of which is colored the same red as the rose. In the background, smaller red cellphones are aligned horizontally. Their screens show a combination of guns, a happy human teen with a friend, and a memorial of the same teen.

“Lo que queremos es venganza”: cómo las redes sociales alimentan la violencia armada entre adolescentes

Los adolescentes publican en Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat o TikTok, fotos o videos de sí mismos con armas y montones de dinero, a veces desafiando a sus rivales. Cuando los mensajes se hacen virales, alimentados por los “likes” y los comentarios, el peligro es difícil de contener.