Continuing on the topic of social media use, we had as our guest Atty. Marianna Sala, President of Corecom (Regional Committee for Communications Control) Lombardy. The theme was “Not Just Cyberbullies: Towards an Educational Pact for Digital Well-being in the Family.” What emerges is a rather disturbing picture of adolescent youth who, born with a cell phone in hand, no longer know how to manage emotions, unable to distinguish physical reality from virtual reality. We are talking about a form of secondary illiteracy in which young people are convinced they have adequate skills, in line with their times, but which on the contrary reduce the time devoted to culturally relevant activities such as studying and reading, essential for psycho-physical well-being, sleep, and social interaction. This results in antisocial behaviors in the various forms of cyberbullying, a phenomenon that is spreading like wildfire. Greater presence of schools and families is important, establishing rules on cell phone use: for example, it is known that most episodes of cyberbullying occur between 8 PM and 8 AM, and here the family should have an essential role in monitoring their children’s smartphone use. Only through active collaboration and an educational pact of shared responsibility among institutions, families, and students can we attempt to stem this extremely dangerous phenomenon that not infrequently leads to very serious consequences.
LF
