The European Parliament has just voted on a resolution that, if followed by our governments, will be able to restore order to that digital jungle that is the Internet at this moment. I will not mention here the painful events that occurred, including the loss of human lives. … It results from the misuse and abuse that can be committed by young people in particular from the network and its content, including its traps and addictions.
The human mind, the organ in our body that we know little about, is a living element that adapts depending on the practices we perform with it. We can say that the human mind is like plasticine dough, which you can design and change depending on the manipulations you make. Virtuous practices turn a lump of plasticine into a fantastic figure. Clumsy practices can turn the same lump of plasticine into an eyesore.
The ability to adapt to the practices we subject our brain to has a physical basis: 86,000 million neurons. These neurons are like chips, and depending on the connections they create with each other, circuits are created, which make up our entire brain. For this reason, the stimuli our brain receives will determine its development and our mind. In our societies, 97% of young people go online at least once a day. 78% of our 13-17 year olds check their devices at least once every hour. To complete this data, know that one in four of these young citizens experience problematic or dysfunctional practices with their smartphones.
After 46 years of clinical practice, I have never witnessed the epidemic of mental disorders that I have seen post-COVID quarantine. There is no doubt that the environmental novelty in this time is the appearance of screens and the Internet in our lives and what we see and experience among our children and youth.
The Internet and the smartphone are not only a weapon loaded with the future, they are also a weapon that carries great risks for the plasticity of our brains and minds, which is why members of the European Parliament were absolutely right when they proposed regulating the use of the Internet in order to protect our young people, just as legal drugs – tobacco and alcohol – or firearms, have already been regulated for those under 16 years of age. Let’s organize now to protect minors from the epidemic of mental and social illness that threatens them from their smartphones.