Two clichés, if we want to be opposites, have been colliding with each other for some time.
The first, which has been in vogue in recent years, wants the Internet, and above all social networks, to be tools that by their very nature hypnotize, create addiction and brutalize users. The other adage, as old as the world (and well applicable also to new technologies), states that no tool is good or bad, but it depends on how it is used.
If this last concept is certainly sacrosanct, it is equally true that – also given the fragility and psychological permeability of the main users of the Internet, i.e. young and very young people – the utmost attention must be paid not to the use, but to the abuse, of sites and platforms.
Examples of negative effects are numerous. Just think of the so-called vamping, or the inclination of young people to spend the nights face to face with their device.
So what to do?
Il Disconnect day
There is certainly no need to adopt positions dictated by haste and superficiality, attitudes for which the social networks themselves are blamed, freeing family members and institutions from their respective responsibilities.
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As happened in Seattle, where some schools have sued the companies producing social networks because they “damage children”.
Days like the one organized today, Saturday 6 May, in our country are much more focused and constructive.
We are talking about the Disconnect day, which also includes a physical event in Fabriano. Let’s see what it is.
24 hours without smartphone
The Disconnect day is organized by the National Association Di. You. (Technological Addictions, GAP and Cyberbullying), the Municipality of Fabriano, the Marche Region and the Regional Council.
The objective of the event, now in its second edition, is already declared by the name itself.
Which in itself is a small provocation, but contains a high symbolic value. Participants in the day will have to deliver their devices to the infopoints scattered around the city. In short, no cell phones starting from 9 in the morning.
During the day there will be various events (debates, workshops, activities, games and screenings), which will also involve the schools of Fabriano. And to which anyone can attend and participate. But, sacrilege, without the possibility of sending messages on WhatsApp or similar, nor checking the news of the world or the weather forecast.
The guests
Among the guests of the Disconnect day the actor Paolo Ruffini, the criminologist Roberta Bruzzone, the psychotherapist Giuseppe Lavenia (expert in cyberbullying and president of the National Association Di. Te.), the engineer Emanuele Frontoni and the Councilor for Culture of the Region Marches, Chiara Biondi.
We are always connected
Disconnect day is a great little experiment.
We have all experienced first-hand the sense of discomfort we feel if, unfortunately, we forget our smartphone for a few hours at home or elsewhere.
Only then do we really realize how doubly tied we are (not to say employees) from the Net, whether for professional or recreational reasons.
On average, to be less vague, we look at the cell phone 150 times a day.
Some numbers
Just Lavenia, president of Di. Te., explains that “we are online 8 hours a day. And we spend almost 4 hours every day in front of social media. That’s 28 hours a week, 120 hours a month, 2 full months a year.
The first Disconnect Day after Covid will be an opportunity to switch off, go offline and take care of our authentic relationships”.
Then there is the problem of children, even very young ones.
The National Association of Pediatrics reports that almost half of parents tend to calm their child by putting him in front of a screen. On the other hand, it is a sadly common image of a family at a restaurant, with adults chatting with them (or consulting their smartphones) while their children watch videos or play electronic games.
Social beings, not social
The goal of Disconnect day is certainly not to oppose the use of devices, but to make it more consistent with a life that should be more… social and less social.
As Lavenia reiterates: “Disconnecting is important: having a day that remembers it is essential because it creates in public opinion the conviction of the need for detox moments.
Disconnection is important in general because it allows you to regain possession of what is around you: loved ones, your moments of freedom, your right to disconnect.”