The numbers on the limits without limits of digital “devices” by children and adolescents is beyond the guard level. Families and schools must take action.
At nine years 70 percent of children have a smartphone. Boys connected for over 30 hours a week, teenagers in constant contact with peers through social media that far exceeds the physical relationship with them. In the face of these statements, a sort of conviction of the self -employment of the situation has spread. It is a bit like it happened for immigration. It is said: it is an unstoppable phenomenon, you can try to do something but it will certainly be growing, we must accept it as it is, and bullshit of this type.
Exactly in the same way we face this invasion and pervasion of digital toolssmartphones or tablets that are, until it is a reason as a non -governable social reality. The alarms that come from psychologists and psychiatrists that indicate increasingly consistent amounts, well over 300 thousand patients with internet dependence only a few years ago, serve. And the research is of little use that demonstrate growing problems in managing personal relationships between pre -adolescent and teenagers with their peers. Finally, it is of little use to warn on the big problems of writing and learning in memory of those who spend more time within the virtual than in real life. And these are not opinions thrown there in a discussion during a briscola game at the bar, but it is now a multitude of studies made by Italian and foreign university and institutes that demonstrate, I would say in an irrefutable way, these negative effects.
Yet despite the multiplication of research and their diffusion On the media, this mentality for which we are faced with a phenomenon compared to which we are helpless and powerless is increasingly made. And, if we can say, a similar surrendering is almost more serious in the face of the fact that the phenomenon itself: because this can be ruled, especially with the collaboration of families and schools, and as if it can be governed … The last report is of the organization for cooperation and economic development (OECD), is titled How for Children in the Digital Age? And it deals with the daily habits of the boys and the development of their life in the digital era, also proposing possible solutions to improve the relationship between new generations and technology. It is a relationship that should be spread in all families and in all schools.
Almost all the fifteen -year -olds, exactly 96 percent, has access to a computer or a tablet And 98 percent have a smartphone on which over 50 percent spend more than 30 hours per week. Which means 4.2 hours a day, probably with much higher peaks on the weekend. However, calculating that the day counts 24 hours and that eight are usually spent sleeping, on average five at school, one between lunch and dinner, there are 10 hours of which three or four should be dedicated to study, while 40 percent of the remaining time passed on the internet, a truly monstrous figure. Yet it is so, and many think that from here it cannot be thrown back. An authentic madness. As the research is informed of 10 percent of teenagers between 11 and 15 years of age have problematic behaviors in the use of social media and girls and minors of foreign origins are the most affected. 17 percent of the fifteen -year -olds say they feel nervous when they do not have access to their devices. The OECD report tells us that the abuse increases the risk of developing anxiety and solitude, worsens the quality of sleep, the school results, decreasing, as mentioned above, the time dedicated to facing-to-face interactions and physical activity.
The OECD suggests to intensify the collection of data to monitor the relationship between the digital world and well -being of young people. He is right to sell because many make statements on the effects of social networks without knowing their real entity, unfortunately, even in the school and in many families. The OECD also recommends developing policies that point to listening and knowledge of the experiences of children, another sacrosanct thing, because it must be understood the progress of this phenomenon which, for now, has gone worse. It also asks for another thing, on which we are more pessimistic, namely a harder legislation and the insertion of filters and controls to prevent and block the harmful content for the boys. We have the impression that many platforms, of the fate of the boys who use them little interests. n
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