It is impossible to compete with a mobile phone. A book does not have the necessary tools to fight on equal terms. In many cases, even real human relationships cannot compete with the lights, sounds, instant gratification, immediacy, variety, and personalization of portable devices.
As if that were not enough, we are the ones who put that black mirror in front of our children. The only way to balance the scale is to take them away at times: there are no cell phones at the table (neither at home nor in a restaurant) there are no cell phones in the bedrooms (neither theirs nor ours), there are no cell phones if there are others children, there are no cell phones if we are in a celebration… but of course, when there are no cell phones, the boys and girls make noise, complain, protest, interrupt, talk… and we have to act as fathers and mothers and scold them, talk to them, play with them … It will be difficult to complain about a future or a present that we are creating and promoting.
We cannot put on lights and sounds and buttons and be as varied and fun as tiktok videos, Instagram reels or whatsapp memes… or maybe we can: there are those who try to compete by being as superficial and as hollow as mobile devices… Maybe the time has come to start doing our job as educators of the society of the future… or we can simply adapt to this unstoppable wave that we feed every day and give up. Kids are the first loosers in this battle, but over time, we will end up being as expendable and as replaceable as the phones that are changed every two or three years.
If you let your children unattended with a cell phone, please, do not come to us for help when they get in trouble: there is very little we can do if you are not willing to do your part.