Young people and digital media

As children move into puberty and turn from adorable little kids into young adults, parents gradually ease their control over media use. However, parents should always find the time to talk about media in everyday family life. This promotes media competence among young and old alike. And parents can actually do even more than they think.

Sabrina is fourteen years old. In her small amount of free time she likes meeting friends and loves watching TV series by streaming them on her laptop at home or on her smartphone while out and about. Since the age of twelve, she has been carrying a small computer in her favourite rucksack adorned with colourful flashes and a rainbow-coloured unicorn toy attached to the zip. When Sabrina comes home in the evening, her siblings and parents are not always waiting there for her, but there’s always someone there. By dinner time, most of the family are home and they have time to talk about things including media. Her parents also speak from their own experiences and don’t just ask Sabrina and her siblings. They often talk about family rules on media use, and discuss changes at the table. Sabrina’s boyfriend Beat, however, is not familiar with such situations. He loves playing games, whether on a screen or on a football pitch. He does sit down at the dinner table with his parents several times a week, but media has never been a major topic. It’s just a fact of life. His parents have given him and his brother a plenty of freedom in using media right from the beginning, as long as their “schoolwork is good enough”. And the rules haven’t changed since the smartphone entered Beat’s life at ten and half years old. This isn’t because his parents are uninterested in him, but because “they don’t understand all the new apps” and feel so overwhelmed by the abundance of media content that they have given up to some extent. Fortunately, the school provides some support – Beat has already been taught about cyberbullying and sexting during some project weeks. The new Lehrplan 21, which Beat’s father only recently discovered while talking with other parents, will certainly cover media and IT to ensure that children are able to navigate the world of electronic media more competently. At least that’s what he and his wife are hoping.

Sabrina and Beat are just two examples from a large number of older children and young adults who are going through puberty, which is a particularly challenging phase of their lives. With one foot still in childhood they’re already looking at what the world of adulthood holds in store: responsibility, plans and prospects for private and professional life. Information on all possible topics can be quickly googled, but is not necessarily understood unless discussed with another person. The diversity of topics and entertainment options can enrich, surprise, fascinate, inform, as well as hit hard, distract, overwhelm and frighten. Both Sabrina and Beat have stable family homes. They know that they can theoretically go to their parents with all their concerns, which is not something that all young people can claim. Yet children of Sabrina and Beat’s age often prefer talk to a good friend when touching on delicate topics, or areas their parents would “have no idea about.” This also includes media-related issues, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This is known as follow-up communication and involves talking about received media content. Even just talking about media promotes individual media competence as people actively reflect upon and question what has been seen and heard. Whoever it’s with. Simply using a device does not turn someone into a media expert – Sabrina knows this now. While explaining how to get Skype working to her father and watching her mother install the latest version of WhatsApp, Sabrina has often been given one or two tips by her parents about interacting with people on- and offline: not because they are really skilled with new media, but because they have plenty of life experience and talk openly with their children. Topics such as respect, etiquette, being a savvy consumer and critical thinking are now more important then ever. Beat’s parents are also aware of these things. And if they were encouraged not to regard the media as something separate that they “can barely keep up with”, it’d be easy for them to discuss these media-related issues with Beat as well. Parents are generally more capable than they think when it comes to media. 

In just a few years, Sabrina and Beat will be going their own ways and once they become adults, rules about media at home (if there are any) will no longer apply anyway. But we can hope that they have learnt that setting rules is not such a stupid idea, even certain self-imposed rules from time to time. This will ensure media remains a useful, entertaining tool and does not overshadow important non-media activities. But they haven’t reached this point yet. There are still a couple of years to go, and their parents shouldn’t totally abandon their media rules during this time. They should be jointly set with their children and consistently followed by children and parents alike. Their children may seem adult-like but they’re still going through puberty and have some growing up to do.

Dr. Evelin Hipeli will speak on this topic at Connecta Bern.