Our objective is to highlight the dimensions of the digital system. To do it, we present figures related to the global penetration of the Internet and analyze the penetration of the Internet in the Americas. Then we focus our attention on social networks, and present the most significant Facebook stats. Finally, we refer the studies of the World Economic Forum, which are essential for understanding the importance of the Internet and social networks in the development of telecommunications systems.

 The central theme of our text is the presence of a shadow in the communication academy in Latin America: the shadow of Marshall McLuhan. In the first section, we refer to some anecdotes about McLuhan’s participation in the First World Congress on Communication, held in 1974, in Mexico. This allows us to narrate how the first degree in communication sciences was conceived. In the second section, we identify some events that we consider particularly significant in the recovery of McLuhan’s work and thought in Latin America. In Latin America we must recover the questions that this wonderful visionary and philosopher of communication formulated. This will allow us to recover a large part of the time we have lost.

For not few generations Proceso has been the only mean to get information better than the one in Mexico’s normal media offers, which almost never has the kind of hard critical journalism. In recents years, the shift to knowledge economy has imposed great changes in the overall media. Today, the use of the internet is now mandatory. Reporte Indigo is placed among a reduced number of media, born inside the web, that understand thesis “the medium is the message”.

Our objective is to highlight the dimensions of the digital system. To do it, we present figures related to the global penetration of the Internet and analyze the penetration of the Internet in the Americas. Then we focus our attention on social networks, and present the most significant Facebook stats. Finally, we refer the studies of the World Economic Forum, which are essential for understanding the importance of the Internet and social networks in the development of telecommunications systems.