Society Today: Digitalization and/or Reading

Christine Leșcu, 12.12.2018, 12:45

Along with the
IT revolution and the diversification of digital devices, benefits and
advantages have been accompanied by disadvantages too. According to parents and
educators, they are mostly affecting children, who, from a very tender age,
start using the remote control, the smart phone or tablet, to the detriment of
traditional playing and, later in school, to reading.

Diana Mocanu is the
director of the Gama publishing house in Iasi, eastern Romania, specializing in
educational projects. She told us about the main effects of digitalization on
the development of children’s brains:

There
are European statistics showing clearly that children under the age of 5 spend,
on average, three hours in front of a screen, which is a lot. What small
children need is the opportunity to develop their vocabulary and fine
motricity. Also, they need to develop synapses through interaction with real,
not virtual objects. That is why there should be rules, keeping children under
3 away from screens. The digital world will catch up with them anyway, as they
grow up, and teenagers actually need to keep up with the latest in terms of
digital skills, because this is the future.
However, in order for children to
start loving books too, it’s important for them to start actually reading when
they should, and this is where we, the parents, should step in. It’s important
to be there for our children, to motivate them to read, to given them books
that help them develop a taste for reading.

With the express
aim of helping children develop a love for books, Gama has launched a campaign
titled The Day When We Have Time, devoted to both children and parents, as
Diana Mocanu told us:

TRACK VF: The
campaign started with debates. One of them was held at the Gaudeamus Book Fair
in Bucharest, and the other one in Iasi, our home city. We hosted well known
figures from the world of books and parenting, but also from the virtual field,
in order to illustrate both perspectives. We wanted to find viable solutions
for parents, to help them.

To this end,
book collections specially designed to have parents and children read together
are extremely useful. This can help children read more easily, without too much
effort. Here is Diana Mocanu again:

If we
think of this in terms of gadget vs. book, we must not forget that a digital
device is extremely attractive, fun, and easy to use. Reading, on the other
hand, is a very complex activity, which entails an effort that takes years. If
we look at the two, the gadget vs. the book, the gadget wins, if the child has
problems reading.

No such
campaign, however, can be of any use unless they target both children and
parents, says poet Robert Serban, one of the participants in the debates held under
the ‘The Day When We Have Time’ campaign. He tried to address some of the
worries voiced by parents during the debates with regard to the use of digital
equipment.

They
forget to look in the mirror. They forget to turn off TV sets, they forget to
put down phones and tablets when they get home. So, they actually ask their
children to do things that they cannot do themselves. In fact, it is well known
that children imitate what their parents do, because they are their role
models. For years I’ve talked to parents asking me what to do, what strategies
to adopt in order to make them read. My reaction has always been: What do you
do when you get home? Well, I sit in my chair and turn on the TV. Then what
do you expect from your son? Does he see you or your wife read? That would be
the explanation. These campaigns are important, but, for them to be more than
just a theory or a slogan, they should target not only children, but their
parents too.

Robert Serban is
a father himself, so he understands the fascination of the internet and of
computer games. On the other hand, he knows that digital technology can be a
very good instrument for acquiring knowledge, if used properly. Here is Robert
Serban once more:

We do
not use them as tools, we let them use us. They occupy all our time. They are
fabulous and fascinating. I often wonder what I would have done if, as a child,
I had something like that in the 1970s-1980s. I’m sure that I would have been
mesmerized, just like my kids are today. I have an 8-year old boy and a 12-year
old girl. I am fighting with these tools they have access to these days. I am
trying to protect them, and especially to tell them that this is what they are,
just tools. We use the phone to talk to each other, not to stare at the screen
all day long. We watch TV from time to time, to watch a movie or the news, not
to become addicted to it. What really shapes us is reading, be it on the
screen, on a sheet of paper, in a book. This is important. There is scientific
evidence showing that reading develops the nervous system, it develops the
brain and helps us focus and imagine things.

The campaign run
by the Gama publishing house ended with a day when parents and children put
their smart phones and tablets aside, turned off the TV, in order to be closer
to their loved ones, in the company of a book, of a game or just to stroll in
the park.