THE SO-CALLED “DIGITAL NATIVES”

Your son at the age of two already knew how to use the tablet (an updated version of the 80s/90s where you knew how to use the VCR and your mum didn’t). True. And of course: it’s part of his world, he was born when there were already smartphones/tablets and so on.

They call them digital natives because of this.

But in what sense do they ‘know how to use’ technology? They are very familiar with interfaces (i.e. they know what to click, how to go on youtube and so on). But they have no idea how what they are using works internally. And that creates big problems. Yes, because I think that machines should be at the service of man and not the other way around. And instead it happens that if I don’t know how they work, I risk becoming a slave to them. We are in 1854 (more than 165 years ago!) when Thoreau laments that men have become “instruments of their instruments”. But today? Much worse: I also risk becoming entangled in situations I had not imagined. And here we hear of cyberbullying, revenge porn and other decidedly unpleasant things, lumped together with ‘but I didn’t think it could happen’ or ‘if I had known it was so easy’ and so on.

We must invest heavily in the education (including technology!) of our children. Only in this way can we make them aware of the reality around them. And thus prepare them for life.