Is it true that the use of smartphones causes damage to learning in minors?
Research conducted by Milano-Bicocca and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland demonstrates that the intensive and early use of smartphones in minors reduces the academic performance of a substantial part of the student population. All the details in the Agi article
The intensive and early use of smartphones in children does not promote learning, on the contrary, it reduces the academic performance of a significant part of the student population. This is confirmed by research by Milano-Bicocca and Supsi on Invalsi data.
The research, entitled “Earlier smartphone acquisition negatively impacts language proficiency, but only for heavy media users. Results from a longitudinal quasi-experimental study”, conducted by Tiziano Gerosa, researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland (SUPSI) and Marco Gui, director of the Digital Wellbeing Center of Milan-Bicocca (department of Sociology and Social Research) tested the main theoretical hypotheses on the role of the smartphone in learning processes, both those that hypothesize benefits and those that expect negative impacts.
The study concerned the age range 10-14 years, comparing those who receive the device before the age of 12 – at 10 and 11 years – therefore in the transition between primary and secondary school, and those who receive it in the following years, i.e. 12 , 13 and 14 years old. The total sample was made up of 1,672 lower secondary school students and the administrative information retrieved on the same students over time from the National Institute for Evaluation of the Education System (INVALSI).
THE PROFILES MOST AT RISK
The results show no benefits at the end of lower secondary school, for those who acquired a smartphone early, nor for the students most motivated to study. However, participants who had intense media use habits before owning a smartphone (more than two hours a day between TV and video games) experience a negative and significant impact on learning Italian. At the time of data collection, students with intensive use of screens – and therefore subject to the possible negative effect of smartphones – were 23.5 percent of the Italian student population.
“This result – says Marco Gui – confirms a hypothesis that is emerging in international literature: the independent use of “mobile media” during childhood can harm in particular those with pre-existing fragilities, in this case a reduced ability to limit the use of screens linked to the family context or specific psychological characteristics”.
EARLY TIME OF USE AND QUANTITY OF USE
There has been a great debate going on for some time about the impact of the use of digital media on the growth of minors. The literature has already identified a negative relationship between early use – and quantity of use – of the smartphone and scholastic results, but the lack of scientific evidence more solid than simple correlations is often lamented. “This study – says Tiziano Gerosa – is the first in Italy to research the impact of the smartphone on learning levels with more sophisticated methodologies”.
Other research is underway by the "Digital Wellbeing" Center of Milan-Bicocca on this topic. In particular, the EYES UP project, financed by the Cariplo Foundation, will analyze the impact of a set of devices and early online experiences on the learning levels during the school career of students from primary to secondary school.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/e-vero-che-luso-degli-smartphone-provoca-danni-sullapprendimento-nei-minori/ on Sat, 16 Sep 2023 05:17:28 +0000.