Digital began as a complement to our lives and now it completely invades them. It surrounds us 24 hours a day and in any area: education, health, business, sexuality, leisure... It is not strange, then, that hundreds of mothers and fathers begin to think about limiting this colonization, the main risk of which (there is progress, of course) It is the hijacking of attention, that of children and adolescents, but also that of adults.
Why has it taken us so long, some ask? For several reasons: novelty, speed of implementation, admiration, resignation, ignorance. There are two myths that have helped a lot in this postponement. One is that of the supposed “digital natives”. It invites us to think that, if they have been born from digital, what more logical that they bathe with gadgets from day one. The truth is that no one – at the moment – is born with an iPad, we come into the world caused by a human desire and it is the parents who provide us with the objects, devices included. They do it at their own pace and with their own style (in Great Britain, one in four children under 2 years of age have their own tablet).
The other myth is that technology is neutral and, therefore, it is good as long as one does not misuse it, it all depends on him. That would be useful if we were talking about knives or hammers that sleep peacefully in their drawers without sending us notifications, asking us for data or suggesting new uses. Digital does take the initiative and catches us easily (notifications, infinite scroll, rewards). Does it not seem ridiculous to you, then, to place all the responsibility for self-regulation on a 12-year-old child or his parents when the most powerful government in the world has not been able to regulate the practices – many of which are irregular and abusive – of the five or six technology companies? What controls our data?
We welcome these initiatives – which are added to previous ones – of families who come together to accompany their children in reasonable use of screens. I suggest three keys to this. The first: advance digital disconnection – slowly, but surely – and, above all, collectively. Prohibition does not serve as a flag, nor does it serve to set unviable objectives because that is an illusion that comforts us adults, but whose rapid failure makes us more guilty. Better, regulate its use by creating spaces free of connectivity (sleep, meals, patios, family gatherings). The second: teach them to make good use of it, respecting those principles (equity, privacy, solidarity, respect) that continue to be valid in virtuality and adding a plus: suggesting other more diverse searches than the more of the same that the algorithm serves them in tray. That's called digital literacy. The third, positively, is to propose other desirable things in person: leisure, sports, cultural, group activities. For families that do not have that time, we must demand from the administration more supervised social meeting spaces.
The prior is to assume the necessary co-responsibility of everyone: governments, industry, schools, families and children and adolescents. Each one has their own and adults must give their example and their testimony in the good uses of digital.
