Riyadh newspaperDigital intelligence threatens the creative skills of children

Depending on the global changes that the world is witnessing towards digitization, which has become a comprehensive global revolution that has withdrawn on the cultural, educational and educational scene through the mechanisms and means of receiving; This made dealing with this new reality inevitable.

Maghfoori: Screens limit a child's imagination

Children and the emerging generations are considered the most affected by this reality in terms of the impact on the mental and creative abilities of this group.. “Riyadh” questions this reality, and is discussing with a number of specialists ways to develop creativity, the faculty of imagination and imagination among children in light of this reality in which we live.

Limits the child's mental ability

The storyteller who specializes in children’s literature, Ibrahim Muhammad Sheikh Maghfuri, says: We live in the era of true renaissance, the era of globalization, the era of digital creativity, and it is obvious that members of society are immersed in this choppy sea that is teeming with electronic devices, especially mobile phones and tablets. And it controlled everything, it turned children into addicts to these devices, and most families rejoice if their children are distracted by mobile phones or tablets, and they do not know the dangerous harm to the child from these devices, as they limit their mental abilities if used incorrectly, and affect the child’s imagination and limit his creativity. Turning him into a non-interactive listener with what is going on around him, and the whole fear that these devices will affect the child’s scientific future. Families must regulate their children’s use of these devices, and they must create a balance in their use.

Al-Saqr: Reading stories develops children's creativity

Balanced usage

In turn, Faraj Al-Dhafiri, a writer of children's stories and former editor-in-chief of (Bassem) magazine, points out that

The accelerated development is the transfer of children to new worlds, and all modern methods cannot be judged as negative or positive by themselves, but rather by their results.

pointing out that the majority of parents' complaints are about their children's excessive use of these devices. As for balanced, deliberate and directed use, it will benefit children. Every stage of a child's development requires needs that must be satisfied, and play is one of these needs, and their satisfaction cannot be through devices only, because the child needs to integrate with those around him to satisfy social needs, and to achieve positive communication that achieves balance in his personality, and makes him feel real and tangible appreciation. In reality.

Al-Dhafiri: The devices put the child in a limited mold

On the level of imagination and creativity, devices often make the child in a limited mold, and do not allow him the opportunity to run in his wide imagination, and interact with the surrounding environment, as it isolates him socially, psychologically and mentally. and affect his health.

Adding: With a realistic view, devices have become indispensable for children, and we can adapt them to be a source of benefit for them, by rationalizing the time of use, and allowing children to access the best websites and applications. At the level of production, it is supposed to provide appropriate content that is competitive in form and content, linking it to educational and enriching aspects, adding something that stimulates the child’s imagination, arouses his surprise and curiosity in a positive way, strengthens his imaginative and creative faculties, and pushes him to be a positive participant and interactor, rather than being a passive recipient.

Suleiman: Chasing promotional clips hinders creative energies

The dangers of social media

While Maryam Al-Saqr, a writer specializing in children's literature and media, confirmed that many families are still neglecting and completely devoting themselves to tablets, under the pretext of modernity in which the world lives, ignoring the need for balance and moderation in their use, so the child spends long hours with his tablet; To be thus captive and isolated in the midst of this virtual world with all its negatives and positives, in the absence of a mediator, a human monitor, and a child’s appointee.

Maryam added that the family is responsible for the addiction, looseness, and isolation of children with devices, and they control the management of the child's upbringing. Al-Saqr described leaving the child in such a situation as a grave crime against him, and it is like leaving the child in seclusion with a variegated, unknown, and unreliable stranger. With it, he can at any moment harass his mind, thought and behavior through the inappropriate content that he provides to him.

Before she concluded her speech by pointing out the need to pay attention to creating a creative environment for the child, by focusing on household activities, movement, sports, various games, exercises, exploration skills, meditation, hobbies, trips, crafts, and the practice of performing arts, which help develop a sense of creativity and innovation, as well as Motivate the child to read stories and magazines, share it with him, and pay attention to supporting and developing his talent. Also among the solutions to nurture and develop a generation of thinkers and creators is interest in children’s printed press, supporting children’s stories, and focusing on ambitious and enjoyable programs far from chaos, confusion, superficiality, and consumption.

Technical revolution

While the writer Majed Suleiman says: The technical revolution has not forgotten the child from its services. Today, children are no longer engaged in traditional drawing and coloring, nor running around in the halls of houses, nor dismantling toys and plastics, and reassembling them according to an image previously invented by their imagination, nor children Today, like their predecessors, they devote themselves to reading famous children’s stories, as they have replaced all of that with a touch screen: he draws, paints, writes, disassembles and assembles geometric shapes, reads stories, and even began to receive his education through tablets, just as adults finish their governmental and private transactions through them. With his peers through it, through a sound and a picture, after he was begging his parents to take him to his friends for an hour or two, and then he would return exhausted and go to sleep.

Adding: Tablet devices and their siblings have provided a great service to people of this age, and what I mean are the civil services that affect the citizen, and the communication services that have brought them closer and easier. The adults who stood baffled by the deluge of tech.

In my estimation, the child has not changed much in his childish practices, but rather transferred it with him to the digital life in which we live. What has changed is the excessive waste of his time in the use of destructive applications and programs, such as following other people's diaries, and pursuing commercial promotional clips in a voracious and dangerous manner, until it harmed These behaviors distorted his childhood, distorted his innocent imagination, and disrupted his creative energy, which we watch to explode at an expected moment. The solution is to intensify awareness, and increase encouragement doses for the child to perform creative works, whatever their field, so that the country does not lose new creators.