Interpersonal relationships eliminated, collapse of attention on the desks, damage to the psyche not yet quantifiable. Against the abuse of smartphones, parents and teachers bring young people back to the dimension of analogue gaming. Help groups are growing, but the social pressure to have a device in your hand is unsustainable.
The desire for analogue is back forcefully. The wind has changed. One is advancingarmy of parentswho brandish their Bible in their hands, that is, the book of Jonathan Haidt, The anxious generation (anyone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about can’t use the title of parent). Mothers and fathers who created real movements like Smartphone free childhood, The balance project, Fair play And Screen time action network. Powerful coalitions that move compactly from France toEngland (the most combative), give it United States – oceanic ready class action against all of Silicon Valley – until Brazil. It’s as if the veil of the temple had been torn: now the child playing with the tablet on the stroller, instead of playing with the bees, isn’t funny at all, but anguish.
Aware parents and alarmed pediatricians
On the other hand, it’s been years since i pediatricians they talk about visiting newborns who are kept calm on the cot by mothers who fiddle with them with their cell phones. And to meet women who are breastfeeding with their cell phones in their hands. According to English data, one in three seven-year-olds owns a smartphone. TO 13 years old the has it 97% of teenagers. Yet the parents still justify themselves, saying that they didn’t want to give it to him, but the social pressure it wasn’t bearable.
The digital pacts and the revolution from below
After the technological explosion of the “coronacene”, a lot started to move. As he explains Stefania Garassiniprofessor at the Catholic University of Milan and member of the board of directors Digital pactsthe movement that is changing the system from below in Italy: «In 2021 the Digital Pacts network was born with the aim of promoting the creation and development of community agreements for the use of technology throughout the national territory».
The idea started from Gemona of Friuli And Vimercate: parents who have come together to decide together when to give a smartphone to your children. No longer at First Communion, but after seventh grade; for social media, only after the age of 16. Today they exist 142 active agreements, 23 in implementation, 16 regions involved And over 7,000 families.
The return to the real world
To make up for technology we return to magical analog world: detox walks, outdoor games, evenings with the grandparents, meetings on the parental controls. TO Bridge in the Alps a is released digital license; to Bath in Ripoli weekend of workshops and sports; in Puglia theatrical performances to raise awareness.
Ada Gianfreda, of the association The wireless telephonereflects: «Networking and supporting yourself helps, it’s impossible to do it alone». This is how we rediscover ourselves the community that educates.
Laws and bans: the crackdown on smartphones at school
In America two-thirds of parents support schools”phone-freeIn Italy the circulars from Minister Valditara prohibit the use of telephones in schools of all levels. In Parliament, Lavinia Mennuni (FdI) e Marianna Madia (PD) propose a law for raise the minimum age of access to social media to 15 yearsas in France.
The example of foreign countries
THE’Australia prohibits social media before the age of 16. In Englandthe leader of the “no phone” movement is Sophie Winklemanalias Lady Frederick Windsor, cousin of King Charles III. «The impact on children’s mental and physical health is immense – he says -. It is impossible to make devices safe for our children.”
The invisible consequences
After years in which the smartphone was there perfect babysitternow it’s scary. Online solicitations, cyberbullying, challenge dangerous, obesity, attention disorders, alienation. Complex tools, created by adults for adults, end up in the hands of children.
New digital addictions
Many parents fear that denying them smartphones will lead to social exclusion. «We should work on tools suitable for pre-adolescence» he states Marco Guimedia sociologist at Bicocca. And he warns: «New technologies such as are emerging AI apps hey conversational chatbots. We don’t know what effect they will have on children.”
A “grasshopper mind”
The psychoanalyst Franco De Masiauthor of No Smartphones (Piemme), adds: «Many parents do not participate in their children’s lives. Compulsive cell phone use creates a perpetual inattention. The brain gets used to continuous stimuli: it is a “grasshopper mind” that never stops.”
The return of the landline and the “dumbphone”
We are thinking of putting the landline telephone At home. The calls, the whispers on the receiver and even the dumbphonethe “dumb phone” only for calls and messages. He even relaunches it Kendrick Lamar in a limited edition.
Educate, don’t prohibit
«Technology is not the problem – concludes the sociologist – it just needs to be included in the relationship with children». But detractors remain, and consider any limitation to be anti-historical.
A possible change
Marco Grollofounder of the association MEChe says: «In 2018, in Gemona, the first pact reduced smartphones in sixth grade from 70% to 37%. If the adults agree, the result is there.”
The research Eyes Up (2024) from the University of Milan-Bicocca and Brescia demonstrates that those who use social media in middle school achieves lower academic results. Over half of the kids check their phone as soon as they wake up, 22% even at night.
Grollo concludes: «At the end of the 1980s, teachers smoked in class. Today it seems like science fiction. It’s a cultural work. Banning smartphones in public parks wouldn’t be impossible. 80% of middle school problems would disappear without a cell phone.”
