argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Digital orphans
Ioritz Gonzalez Lertxundi 2022ko abenduaren 21

I've heard many times that children from a young age are handled perfectly with devices like mobiles, which often manage better than adults. Perhaps since the birth of the young people are used to using these devices every day, okay. However, knowing how to use it does not always imply proper use. Do we educate them to work with devices that make them essential?

Education has always been based on knowledge and experience, and in the case of new technologies I would say that in many cases we have neither. Consequently, we often offer these tools to younger people without a minimum education. The so-called intergenerational gap is already a reality. Some of the words that the youngest manage will surely be known, such as blogger, cyberbullying, Facebook, Instagram, like, follower, influencer, tweet, hater, match, etc. But have we really thought about
how this reality can affect young people today? More importantly, have we reflected on the possible consequences and/or risks?

Let's think, for example, about how many tips we've received before we navigate just down the street. After many years of learning to walk in the street, it would be unthinkable to see a young child crossing the road, for example. With new technologies, we're doing something like this. Do we try to teach minimum criteria for proper use of devices? When you start using mobiles, do we take time to teach you what the risks can be?

Mobiles are indispensable in the lives of young people and navigate without training or advice in an open sea

Many adolescents access their rooms and only connect to the Internet with their computer or mobile in their rooms. They navigate the digital world, in a reality full of diverse, uninhibited interests and tricks, often without receiving education or advice. Many times we adults, too, have ever thought about whether we have made proper use of devices: when we misuse it, when we have detected insecurity when navigating, with suspicion or fear of being deceived, etc. Will young people not have the same or more risk? I believe that they should have the right to education to avoid incorrect uses and the risks that this may have, as in other situations or contexts.

Most young people spend many hours a day on mobiles, which are essential in their lives, and they sail without receiving education or advice in that vast sea that we call the digital world. I believe that adults should provide them with the resources they need if they are to be used without a minimum of risk. Are they not orphans in a field that is already essential to them in life? For example, is it a meditated decision for the youngest children how many years we start leaving the cell phones? Or how many years do we buy the first cell phone? Or are these trends totally conditioned by society and the environment? Have we measured how many hours they spend with devices every day? Do we know what applications teens have on cell phones? Do we ask them what photos they share on social media?

It is said that water is going to make way, young people are going to make the way, but the question is where the can has been channelled. Let us not forget that those who have been taught today will clarify the paths of tomorrow.