Too much screen

The relationship between children and technology has long been in the attention of scholars, diligent in highlighting the extraordinary potential of early digital literacy and, at the same time, concerned in pointing out the risks present for the full relational and cognitive development. A theme that parents have very clear in their daily family life and which is evident when a son or daughter (often already before the end of elementary school) requests to be able to have their own mobile phone, definitively opening up in the parents the way to questions about which decisions to make and which rules to envisage to promote good use of technology, avoiding risks and dangers as much as possible.

The literature on the subject, starting with the pedagogical one, is now quite substantial. Scientific literature is increasingly added to it, which from field analysis makes us understand what social reality we are facing. The data, for example, confirm a very common perception in hand, that the restrictions adopted in the last three years to combat the Covid pandemic have drastically increased exposure to electronic devices in minors.

A study conducted on over a thousand of them, coordinated by the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital together with the Roman universities La Sapienza and Tor Vergata, has quantified that compared to the pre-pandemic period almost 70% of children spend more time in front of a screen today: on average, use for school purposes has more than tripled (from one to three and a half hours a day), while recreational use has almost doubled (from one hour and hour and 45 minutes). With a specific and strong concern for exposure in the evening hours, those after 6 pm: in fact, almost 30% of those interviewed spend more than two hours on a device in that time slot.

For this reason, it is not surprising that the study reports in those children and young people an increase of more than 50% of sleep disturbances compared to the pre-pandemic period: today they concern 33.9% of the whole sample, practically one minor out of three. It is not a simple detail: sleep - the researchers underline - in this age group is crucial for improving learning and cognitive, scholastic and social skills. In other words, a portion of the future of today's children and young people will also depend on sleep and its quality.

The lifestyle of children and young people has changed profoundly in these three years and is destined to remain (the end of the pandemic closures has not brought us back and will not bring us back to the pre-existing situation at all): and ultimately the consequences of the impact of technology are becoming ever wider, requiring specific attention, both at the family level and at the level of the entire society.


Stefano Caredda
NP June / July 2023