On the Importance of Media Literacy in the Smartphone Era

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Within the last two weeks children have headed back to schools. As a consequence of this schools, towns, villages, and ‘states’ are banning mobile phones for children and teenagers. In theory this is a fantastic, and simple solution. In practice this is failing society.

Plenty of adults, from my generation, and younger, are media illiterate. They use computers for work, and used them for uni and for school, but they didn’t use them for pleasure. The result is that instead of learning, by trial and error, as technology progresses they remain ignorant, until a niche has become mature.

To be more specific. When social networks were around, it was about small communities with conversations within a small, self-contained community. Everyone got to know everyone. Sometimes we wanted to meet in person.

When hashtags came, and when public relations firms came, and utilitarians arrived communities disintegrated to be replaced by the cult of personality. We shifted from being a community, to following influencers. We went from having personal conversatisons to being ignored, and likes.

We moved towards being seperated from our communities. This is relevant because children, and teenagers, are being blocked from using smartphones, a key tool for their adult life. Smartphones are like pen and paper. Smartphones are like the skate park.

Smartphones are a tool, a meeting point.

Facebook, via Threads and Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and others are using algorithms to connect, or disconnect people based on the lowest common denominator, rather than the highest viable product.

To put this in other terms, before hashtags we had to engage for hours a day in online communities, which rewarded it with discussions about projects, collaborations and more. With algorithms the thing that gets the most reactions is pushed to the top. It doesn’t worry about whether interactions lead to follows, and conversations. It only looks at volume.

The result is that negative sentiment is amplified, and amplified again, until mass trolling and flame wars become an issue.

If we revert to banning children, and teens, from using smartphones we are ignoring the core issue with social media, or AntiSocial Media as I call it today.

Recently I have noticed thousands of posts that look the same, that are critical of cyclists. They are farming out hatred towards cyclists. These hateful posts are formulaic, by accounts with no, or few followers. In some circles they are called rage bait.

The significance is that antisocial media is toxic to adults, children, and teenagers. By banning children and teenagers the toxic content is still affecting adults. Adults influence children they encounter.

If antisocial media radicalises, parents, teachers and government officials, then it will percolate down into child and teenage culture and attitudes.

Years ago I kept hearing about what i studied at uni was a Mickey Mouse course, and soft. In today’s social media landscape, where the gatekeepers are algorithms the Mickey Mouse course has become essential. Media literacy is essential.

In France people study philosophy. In Switzerland we studied the déontologie des Médias, but we also studied Theory of Knowledge, and related topics.

Instead of banning mobile phones, media literacy should be taught, as well as theory of knowledge. Children in Nordic countries are being taught media literacy. They are being taught to evaluate news sources for veracity, bias, and more.

By banning smartphones, rather than having media literacy, and device literacy courses, we are encouraging children to miss out on an essential learning phase. We are ensuring that they will be more at risk of falling for propaganda, once they are free to use devices.

GateKeeping

When I first used TikTok I expected it to be a conversation, like we had with Seesmic. As I spent more time on it I saw that it was about broadcasting. Someone copies a trend, and people like and comment. There is no video conversation. There is no deep and personal connection. During the pandemic this made TikTok unhealthy.

With YouTube I have found that the recommendation doesn’t recommend good content. It recommends popular content. The difference is that good content has certain values, certain standards, and a certain level of professionalism. In contrast one channel with millions of views has people shopping, and then doing something. It’s encouraging consumerism. Should anyone be watching this, especially children, and teenagers?

As I am not a parent I don’t have the opportunity to teach young people I see watching User Generated Crap that they’re watching crap.

Parent Editors

In this day and age we need for parents, and teachers, and government officials to have journalistic training, or at least to be taught something similar to Theory of Knowlege. We need parents, and teachers, and other adults to ask "Who wrote this, and why, what do they gain, how does it affect us and others. We also need to ask whether something is sustainable and more.

With media literacy, with smartphone literacy, children are given the tools to use this technology with an informed perspective. If smartphones are banned then clueless children remain clueless adults.

Computer Literacy

When I was a child we could add and remove hard drives, cd drives, DVD burners, graphics cars, network cards and more. When I was a teenager we could install Linux, after growing tired of our machines constantly being tired. The result is that some of us grew up with computer literacy.

Those without this freedom grew up as computer illiterate adults. That’s why Apple is thriving, and why people don’t slide from Windows to Linux. People want to be taken by the hand, and taught, as if they were at school. They don’t want to try, and fail, until they succeed.

And Finally

In my eyes, and through experience, I believe that by banning people from playing with computers, we stunted their learning. We now have adults who grew up with coomputers who are terrified, if not more, than previous generations who had to learn as adults.

By banning children from using smartphones we are not teaching them to use this tech when they are young, and happy to learn. We are kicking the can down to the road. I’d go even further. Adults without smartphone literacy are working to ban children and teenagers from acquiring smartphone literacy because they gave in to stigmas, and prejudice, rather than first hand knowledge.

In an ideal world we would hold Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and mobile phone gamers to account for their immoral practices. Instead we ban children and teenagers. Those children and teenagers will be as vulnerable as their parents, and teachers, when they come of age, because the clueless people from one generation are not educating those from the next generation.

Imagine if we could stop problematic apps from being problematic, for children and adults.