Preadolescent and smartphone

Abstract

The penetration of new media among the very young and in particular the use of tablets and smartphones, objects considered “natural” by children because they were already present at birth, made the analysis scenario very complex.  As usual more or less consolidated in recent years, the phone arrives in the first year (eleven years) almost for all preadolescents. A conventional choice that comes from below, shared by the families of any social status, from the south or the north, young or less young and which we could define as ethical-pragmatic, answers two questions: the first, of a moral character, reflects the idea that children under the age of 11 have not yet acquired the cognitive tools to manage this new technological object and its consequences in “social” life; the second, more practical, believes that the phone can be useful for kids 11 years and older who will start going to school alone. But how will the life of the eleven years change with the arrival of the mobile phone? What will happen in their universe will be a small Copernican revolution, they will discover the possibility of always being connected, they will feel the need to be in a group, in a network, suffer exclusion or disinterest, they will be tempted to destroy the sense of boredom with any online game. Through a telephone, their first form of private property, will claim the right to privacy (block codes or even worse fingerprints), will experience the first forms of autonomy. In short, they will experience adult life.