COLUMN | “Then you are on your bike and then you get a call,” said an unsuspecting woman in 1998. She is one of the interviewees from a movie in which people were asked how they view the then relatively unknown mobile phone. Little did she know that life would turn out so differently. Especially for the toddler with her on the back of the bike.
It should come as no surprise that we all spend far too much time on that small screen. The average in the Netherlands is approx 3 hours per day. Adults slightly less, children often (painfully much) more.
Children are getting their first telephone at an ever younger age. Incidentally, they have been ‘hooked’ on those of their parents for years. Some toddlers are even trying swiping flipping through a magazine, instead of turning the pages, because they simply don’t know any better. Let’s face it, it’s also the perfect solution for a moment of rest. But one with disastrous consequences.
Children are increasingly absorbed in a mobile world. Thousands of techies are working every day to see how they can make their apps even more addictive (and not always with the best intentions). We, parents, teachers, government, stand by and watch.
Your first reaction is probably to “don’t overdo it.” Children and their parents must decide for themselves how to deal with this, don’t they? But it actually has an impact on our entire society.
A few examples of the possible consequences of children who spend too much time on their mobile phones at a young age:
There is, of course, nothing wrong with technology that promotes learning. However, things go wrong when that technology is filled with distracting games, social media and other addictive apps. You just don’t want that in class. That almost sounds like a joke. Even children can think that you can concentrate less well.
Legion to research from home and abroad show that schools where mobile phones are banned, pupils are more social, more positive, play more, exercise more, and there is less bullying among themselves. And, of course, that they perform better. Then the choice seems fairly easy to at least ban them at school, doesn’t it?
RTL Nieuws visited the MY college in Spijkenisse. Phones have been banned there for six years. Not only in class, also during recess.
Unfortunately, there are too many inexperienced and ignorant teachers, school principals and self-proclaimed ones media literacy who believe that we should not interfere too much with our children’s mobile phone use. “Phones provide an innovative way of learning.” and “It’s good if kids get good at that from an early age.” or “They have to learn to deal with this responsibly.”
Get to know me a child who is no more handy than her parents with the mobile. Do these ‘pedagogues’ therefore think it wise to place a jar of sweets in the middle of the room in order to teach children to deal with that temptation in a more sensible way?
Due to the teacher shortage and high workload, teachers and school boards increasingly lack the decisiveness and energy to enforce a ban. So if you are a bit unlucky as a parent / child, you will be delayed from primary school. This is not only bad for those involved, but will also affect the mental capital of an entire generation.
Also Arjen Lubach devoted a recent item to it, aptly titled, “Now it’s over, stop using phones in the classroom.” It seems so obvious.
