mercatornet.com
2024-10-21
Screens are so pervasive in society that we tend to think of them as inevitable. They have become extensions of our bodies. We might think that technology in itself is neutral and is only good or bad depending on how one uses it.
Catherine L'Ecuyer, a doctor in education and psychology, disagrees. L'Ecuyer is Canadian by birth but currently lives in Spain, and she has been a powerful voice against the introduction of screens -- of phones, tablets, laptops -- into the school system for children and adolescents.
In her book, Educar en el Asombro (Educate in Wonder), she makes the case that children and adolescents have lost the art of calmly observing their environment, of delaying gratification, and deep thinking. The environment for young people is more frenetic and stimulating than ever, and it has alienated them from what is natural. Screens have saturated their attention and numbed them to the beauty of the natural world and the wonder of life.
L'Ecuyer is an international voice confronting the "tecnomito" (technomyth) of the digital native - the idea that someone born into technology is more cognitively gifted than a digital immigrant (someone who transitioned into technology later in life).