Schools Without Gym: Student Mental Health Concerns & Digital Funds
“Between 1980 and 2010-2011 the indicators of mental health In evolutionary age they had remained stable for about thirty years. Suddenly in 2012 this stability broke out, with a progressive and constant worsening that has become explored in the Covid years “. Pellai stressed that 2012 represents a watershed year: coincides with the arrival of the smartphone In the hands of pre -adolescents, transforming a simple cell phone into an unlimited navigation tool.
Today’s teenagers present “The worst indicators of mental health of the last 70 years “with significant increases in access to the emergency room, episodes of self -harm and eating disorders. Paradoxically, it is the generation of parents who “He worked harder to raise happy children.”
The risks of the emotional brain in pre -adolescence
Pellai’s analysis focuses on 10-14 yearsparticularly vulnerable age for the effects of digital. During the pre -adolescencedefined as “the age of the tsunami”, the emotional brain undergoes a very powerful acceleration while the cognitive one remains immature. “The volume of emotions goes from 10 to 100, but the command to bring it back to 10 is in the cognitive brain, which however does not have the same power”.
This remaising makes pre -adolescents particularly exposed to digital content designed to capture attention. Video games, social media And online platforms are “strategically designed to become a magnetic field for the emotional brain”, creating first unknown behavioral addictions. Pellai told emblematic episodes: parents who can no longer interrupt the children’s game sessions without unleashing violent reactions, or children who wake up at night to play online.
The expert also highlighted the impact on sleep quality: “Today’s teenagers sleep from one to two hours less a day than their peers 20-30 years ago “. The constant stimulation derived from the unlimited connection delays asleep, compromising a fundamental protection factor for mental health.
The proposals for families and educational institutions
Pellai has outlined concrete strategies for parents e teachers. In the family he proposes the “educational barriers” model: accompany young people in digital navigation up to 14-15 years, just as it is done for demanding travel in real life. “If you have to go to Rome by train at 12 years old, we don’t tell you ‘Get on the train and go’, let’s get with you.”
The recommendations include smartphone Only at the end of the eighth grade, no profile social before the age of 16 and adult supervision of digital activities. “I want to see more bicycle accidents than accidents with the smartphone to change my vision,” said the expert provocatively, underlining how he has never had to help families for bicycle accidents, but hundreds for problems related to smartphones.
On the school front, Pellai criticized the investment paradox: “Elementary schools that do not have a gym but have theimmersive classroom“. The expert questioned European funding for the digitization of schools, when simultaneously invited to adopt the model “smartphone free“. For teachers and educatorssuggested to restore analog rituals such as the “Family Cinema evening” to offer nutrients to passive digital consumption.