PEr some parent is the time expected for months. The school is over, the family gathered for the holidays, and here, ready, ready, the speech for the son perpetually glued to the smartphone: if you continue like this, you lose contact with real life, attentive to violent games, do not get ridden by the influencers, in my time we played at 1 2 3 star! … all right, all sensible. But Once the predication is over, everyone will return to pastime preferred: scroll.
Without more the limits imposed at school (from September, after primary and secondary of the first degree, even in the second degree the mobile phone in class will be prohibited), the summer for children and teenagers risks transforming into one long expanse of hours that you do not know how to occupy. With the phone always at hand, to fill the void.
According to data from Carolina Foundation (which inaugurated the Re.te center. dedicated to young people with uncomfortable problems also caused by web addiction), pre-adolescents (11-14 years), During the school year 6-8 hours a day remain connected, while in summer the hours go up to 10 and even more. 4 of them out of 10 received the first smartphone when they were not yet 10 years old And everyone, at 13, has an exclusive use of it. In the awareness campaign Tea Unseen Risk launched by the Foundation, The “invisible risk” is precisely that of the excessive use of mobile devices in the summer; In three scenes you can see a couple of friends at the park, a family in the mountains and one at the beach with adults chatting together while a child, in a corner, It remains undisturbed with her eyes wide on your cell phone.
«During the holidays, Parents must stimulate children To play football, ping pong, volleyball, organizing trips, trying to involve them in interesting conversations »says Franco De Masi, psychoanalyst, who has just published No smartphone. How to protect the mind of children and adolescents (Piemme). «As long as the tool to communicate with friends, that’s okay. But if instead we areolated and the awareness of what is happening around, then not ».
For De Masi, the repercussions of excessive use of the smartphone can be very dangerous. «Abuse creates what has been called the Mind to Cavalletta: we pass from one stimulus to another because the ability of prolonged attention is lostand this will have consequences in learning. Furthermore, it produces dependence because it saturates sensory channels, i.e. the acoustic and visual ones, e When stimulation stops a situation of emptiness is created, as with drugs ».
According to the latest data, in summer the 11-14-year-old boys remain on the cell phone 10 hours a day and even more, the urgency of a digital detox for the boys (Getty Images) grows
Share hand -written thoughts helps detox
A danger that is not run in the “digital detox” summer camps, That is, where the boys to “detoxify themselves from devices” – they deposit cell phones in a box in the morning And they only take it back in the evening, to contact friends or family. In those of the WWF, the experiment is already rooted and on a large scale. “The experience we focus on being together and immersing yourself in nature” Elisabetta Freuli, head of the WWF Travel summer camps says. “There were some difficulties, in the early days, with teenagers, but now there is no problem anymore. THE Guys live these weeks without mobile phone as something curious and fun, even if they can’t take pictures. When we return in the evening we see that they are not isolated, they remain close. It means that at that moment they feel they belong to the field. For the little ones the discussion is different: Better to avoid making them talk to mom and dad, Otherwise, nostalgia takes place, especially in the evening. We say to parents not to call the staff, unless there are real emergencies ».
Fondazione Carolina is at the second edition of her Summer Camp Digital Detox for children between 13 and 16 years old, around Turin. The experiment, says Ivano Zoppi, secretary general of the Foundation, works well: «If you propose activities that occupy the minds and hearts of the boys, they forget about the cell phoneand the spirit of the group live better. During the day they play games, excursions, activities with horses, while in the evening they share moments of reflection: they write their thoughts by hand on a notebook and then – if they want – they read them to the companions.
Almost everyone does it, it’s a nice moment in which they learn to recognize and manage emotions. Without mobile phone we return to that serenity that accompanies the group in growth. Fearing alone is important, but equally important is to know how to live together with others ».
The contradiction of adults
A positive aspect, according to lame, is that theEffect of the Detox week It does not end with the return home. After the field, the boys resume their phones but use them more responsible. “We must not demonize the tool, but to live it with shared rules” He supports lame. «To parents I say no to obsessive controls, yes to know who chat a boy with. But the most important thing is another: the adult must be an example. If I say to my son not to share personal photos, I don’t have to do it neanch’io. The first to use less cell phones should be mothers and dads ».
Mother and daughter cook a cake together, one of the activities that can favor the digital detox (Getty Images)
And this is the most delicate aspect of the question. Matteo Lancini, psychologist and psychotherapist, president of the MinoTauro Foundation (his latest book is Call me adult. How to be related to teenagersRaffaello Cortina Editore), claim that «We were parents who put our children in the smartphone. We who ask the new generations not to live more on the street and outdoors, in a world that we consider dangerouswe thought that closed in the house, with the device in hand, they were safe ».
The contradiction is evident: we monitor H24 children thanks to the smartphonewe put it in hand – even as children – when we are at the restaurant so that they do not disturb us, then we complain. We should know that At the restaurant I children are boredbut you don’t want to give up.
A ball on the beach can be enough for a digital detox
Summer is a good time to try to get involved. “The word that the boys say they feel most often from adults is” a attimacy “” explains Lancini. “It means that” yes, I’m listening to you, but now I’m very busy. ” We take advantage of the summer months to be togetherto create a profound and authentic relationship with our children, also sacrificing something of us to listen to their needs. The challenge is not: turn off the mobile phone, let’s do something else. But: keep it on, let’s look together A more interesting alternative “. Sometimes, a ball on the beach is enough to make you forget adults and boys to connect online.
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