Tuesday, March 19 2024

Daily life is now unthinkable without the latest technologies. Smartphones,
Tablets, PCs have become commonly used tools as indispensable and necessary
as a wallet or housekeys. Who, if they forget their cell phone in the
morning, doesn’t go home to fetch it?

This close relationship with technology involves everyone: adults,
adolescents and even children. Indeed, everyone usually associates young
people first with new technologies, because youth has always been
synonymous with novelty and modernity. And common sense isn’t wrong. Young
people indeed are often the main users of digital media.

Teens really do spend most of their free time with the new technologies:
they play and have fun with video games, search for information they need
on the internet, develop and maintain social relationships on social
networks, and communicate with their friends and relatives via cell phones.
Traditional media such as television, radio and newspapers, often become
confined to a dark corner of their free time.

But there is not only the playful and social aspect. New technologies also
offer young people plenty of opportunities for development and learning.
Just think of the high school or university student who uses the network to
search for information, write papers or do research, or learn new concepts
and notions, often integrating what they find in books.


Children and new technologies: how it can be used to stimulate their
learning?

This doesn’t just apply to teenagers, but also for children, which experts
now define as digital natives, because they are born with technology and a
baby bottles in their hands.

There are also benefits for them, especially as regards to their formation.
For example, we think of specific apps and websites that help toddlers
develop their creativity and intuition. There is a large variety of online
infant games, often also free, that facilitate learning.

Technology can create great moments of fun, growth, interaction and even
create bonds between parents and their children To better understand, maybe
you will be useful to reread our articles the


10 best kids apps on iPad and iPhone


and


Children and tablet mania.


In general, children perceive technology as something positive, essentially
because it is related to fun. It makes them smile. Have you ever seen a
child having a tablet in his hands? The picture is exactly this, that of a
playful and smiling baby.

Of course, it is clear that we must always encourage the child’s
self-control in the use of technology as much as possible. Educating your
children to self-esteem at this age is crucial to their development and
growth process.


Teens and New Technologies: How to encourage a critical sense?

Let’s return to teenagers and do away with a stereotype made by some rigid
and uncompromising parents and educators: yes, technology can be useful to
teens.

It should never be denied or demonized. But what is essential is knowing
how to use it in a balanced way, without encouraging dependencies and
excesses. But more importantly, it is to stimulate children to always have
a critical sense of digital media. What does this mean? It means that in
our daily relationship with digital media it is not so important to know
them and to know how to use them perfectly from a technical and operational
point of view, rather than being able to develop a responsible attitude,
analysis and criticism. Do not be merely passive users, but active,
attentive and aware. Here are 5 useful tips for all kids (but also for
adults) to improve our relationship with new technologies.

1) Always use credible sources of information: Opening and
reading a webpage does not always mean finding reliable and true
information. The Internet is not an idyllic world where truth is king. You
need to know how to select the sites you want to draw from and to see if
they offer partial, independent and truly reliable information.

2) Analyze topics: Navigating on the Net should never
prevail prejudices and emotions on analysis and reason. You have to
understand the arguments in depth. Often it is also useful to make
comparisons between the various contents found, and then do an analysis.
You must avoid the purely ideological and phased arguments and those
without valid analysis and reasoning.

3) Ask yourself and get answers: in front of any online
content, whether it’s an article or a post on a social network, is it
always worth asking yourself why it was written. What is
the underlying idea? Can it be a fair statement or a good example to
follow? What is good and what is bad? Let’s not stop asking questions, but
let’s get answers too. It is a good habit to develop a sense of analysis
and reasoning.

4) Keep an open mind: we all have our ideas and our
prejudices, it is true. But on the internet it is important to get used to
reading and to considering opinions and ideas other than ours – if they are
valid and reasonable – to improve and stimulate our own minds. An example:
read foreign language sites. It’s an effective way to improve your language
skills, also to learn about the culture, politics, society and traditions
of other countries.

5) Always seek alternatives to technology: the network and
all digital media must not be our sole source of information and
distraction. On the internet, for example, we can easily find so many sites
where we can see free streaming of good movies. However, nothing can ever
replace the emotion, warmth, sensory and social experience of going to the
movies to see a good movie with a good friend.

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