🔌 General ‘Blackout’. What do we think?

On April 28, 2025, a massive blackout left several countries across Europe without electricity supply and telecommunications. But beyond the material impact, the incident opened another equally significant crisis: the emergency communication by the responsible companies and the dependence we have on electricity and technologies.

🕒 When silence speaks too much

During the first minutes – and even hours – after the incident, many people ran to Twitter, WhatsApp and other channels looking for answers. But the companies concerned gave no response. No clear communications, no official alerts. And when they did speak, they often did so with overly technical and impersonal language, which neither calmed nor informed. Part of the population was frightened and speculated about a possible attack.

📲 The demand of the now

We live in a society used to having answers in a matter of seconds. If Google takes more than two seconds to load, we think it is “slow”. We apply the same pressure to crises: we want to know what happened and when it will be resolved immediately. But we often forget one essential thing: the truth is not always instantaneous.

📻 Radios as rescuers?

When everything failed – coverage, internet, digital television – many of us rediscovered an old friend: the analog radio of a lifetime. Those small devices with batteries that worked without wifi, without network and only with an antenna, became essential again. Catalunya Ràdio, RAC1 or RNE, among others, continued broadcasting and offering constant information about the situation, and many households listened to them again as they had done decades ago.

🤯 Making a quick statement is dangerous.

In situations such as the general blackout, we must communicate quickly and explain what we know in order to dominate the story and maintain calm among the population. But reporting too quickly without being clear about what is happening can generate even more confusion. Often, the rush to provide immediate explanations leads to erroneous information being published, which then has to be rectified. And this further erodes trust.

“We are in a hurry to know everything, but the truth needs context and contrast.”

🧠 The pause value.

Perhaps it is necessary to restore the value of the pause: that brief moment to verify, contrast, understand, and only then communicate. This is not slowness, it is rigor. And in a world saturated with data and opinions, rigor is a form of respect for the listener.

🗨️ Our humble opinion

The blackout not only left us literally in the dark. It also showed us how fragile is our link with information, trust and time. Perhaps not everything can, or has to, be immediate. And communication -like electricity- needs a good infrastructure to work: not only cables and networks, but also responsibility, empathy and truth.