Challenges and opportunities in digital education for teenagers

She was under eight years old when she started asking when she would get her own cell phone.

The question would come up from time to time, usually after seeing her friends with smartphones in their hands. In our family, we set a rule: age 14.

It wasn’t easy to stick to that decision. Social pressure is intense, and every year, new arguments emerged for bringing that moment forward.

But we held our ground.

Over time, I realized that this experience with our daughter ended up becoming a real wake-up call for us. We began to study the topic of healthy screen use and its impact on the development of children and adolescents in greater depth.

In the process, I came to realize something important: the first step in dealing with this new and complex challenge is to fully understand the phenomenon.

Parents, educators, and Spiritist educators need to study the topic seriously. When well-prepared, youth leaders and evangelizers can become important sources of support, helping both young people and their families reflect on the balanced use of technology.

A generation surrounded by screens

Today’s teenagers have grown up in an environment that is completely different from that experienced by previous generations. Smartphones, social media, short videos, online games, and digital platforms are part of their daily routine.

Research shows that many teenagers spend more than seven hours a day in front of screens. In some cases, this accounts for nearly half of their waking hours.

When we think about it in the context of years of development, the number is staggering. We’re talking about thousands of hours of childhood and adolescence spent in the digital world.

But perhaps the problem isn’t just the time itself.

What really stands out is what doesn’t happen while the screen is on.

Time that could be spent on:

• family time
• reading
• physical activities
• reflection
• development of social skills

These experiences are essential for emotional, social, and spiritual growth.

The “rules of the game” on social media

An important point we need to understand about how social media works: it’s designed to be addictive!

They are not merely neutral communication tools. At their core, they are media platforms whose monetization depends on user attention.

There is a very clear logic behind this: the more time we spend on the platform, the greater our engagement with content and ads.

To achieve this goal, the platforms use a variety of mechanisms:

• constant notifications
• endless scrolling
• short videos in a row
• likes and comments as a form of social validation

These stimuli activate a neurological reward system linked to dopamine. It is no coincidence that many experts claim these platforms were designed to foster intense habits of use.

This helps explain why so many teenagers say, “I’ll just take a quick look” or “I can control myself.”

And before they know it, an hour or two has gone by.

Understanding this complex neurochemical system helps raise awareness among young people about the need to “protect” themselves from their own brains by developing safeguards against so-called “digital traps.”

The emotional impact on young people

Professionals such as pediatricians, psychologists, and psychiatrists have already reported, based on their clinical experience and various studies, certain effects that frequently arise when screen use becomes excessive among children and adolescents:

• irritability
• anxiety
• difficulty concentrating
• lower tolerance for frustration
• constant need for stimulation

Digital overstimulation has a curious effect on behavior. The world of social media, games, and short videos is designed to generate frequent stimuli that activate the brain’s reward system, which is linked to dopamine. This process creates rapid cycles of anticipation and gratification.

Over time, the brain becomes accustomed to this cycle of immediate rewards. As a result, natural “real-life” activities begin to seem slow or unstimulating. Reading requires concentration, conversation requires presence, and learning something new requires patience. The digital environment, on the other hand, offers quick rewards and constant stimulation, creating a kind of dopaminergic hyperstimulation that conditions the mind to seek immediate gratification.

The value of simple experiences

Helping our children and young people prepare for the world of the future means understanding that technology—especially artificial intelligence—is becoming increasingly prevalent and replacing many routine and repetitive tasks.

This trend tends to “push” people toward engaging in activities that only humans are capable of performing. 

In this context, new skills are coming to the fore, such as emotional intelligence (EQ) and even spiritual intelligence (SQ).

Interestingly, the environment of Spiritist evangelization can be fertile ground for developing these behavioral skills, commonly known as “soft skills.”

These skills begin to develop in childhood, through simple everyday experiences such as:

• play freely
• imagine and create stories
• interact with others
• negotiate rules in games
• deal with frustration
• work together as a group

In this regard, the Spiritist Education classroom for children and adolescents offers a wealth of opportunities. Often, using simple resources—such as stories, interactive exercises, group activities, educational games, and moments of reflection—it is possible to stimulate children’s imagination, foster social interaction, and encourage their active participation.

These experiences allow children and young people to be active participants in their own learning. By engaging in situations that foster cooperation, creativity, dialogue, and reflection, they begin to develop deeply human qualities—such as empathy, self-control, a sense of purpose, and spirituality. In an increasingly technological world, it may be precisely in these simple spaces of community, such as Spiritist Evangelization, that we will be helping to shape more conscious human beings, prepared not only for the digital future, but to live with balance, responsibility, and meaning.

Spiritism’s Perspective on the Family

The Spiritist Doctrine offers us a much broader perspective on this topic, presenting the home as a spiritual school – a space where spirits come together to learn values such as patience, respect, dialogue, and love.

Our home is a true fraternal laboratory, where we are invited to pursue moral development through close and prolonged coexistence with our family members – a learning process that takes place precisely within the relationships and interactions of daily life.

When screens begin to take the place of human relationships, a silent reversal of priorities occurs. Little by little, individualism grows stronger, and it is not uncommon to see, within the home itself, the family gathered in the same room, yet each member isolated and immersed in their own “digital world.”

The family is together… but not truly connected!

Thus, little by little, we see family life – with its exchanges, lessons, and natural friction – being replaced by individual digital experiences.

Attendance and Responsibility in Education

In this context, it becomes even more important to reflect on the role of parents in their children’s upbringing. Spiritism reminds us that parenthood, beyond material obligations, primarily involves moral and spiritual responsibility. Children do not come into the home by chance; they are spirits entrusted to their parents to be guided and educated.

Raising children requires emotional presence, attention, and an understanding of each child’s needs. As Spiritism also teaches us, it is necessary to study one’s own children, to understand their inclinations, their difficulties, and their potential.

In this process, the role of the educator is also very significant. When working with children and young people, they not only guide the students but can also help raise parents’ awareness, assisting families in reflecting on the challenges of education in the digital age.

A challenge – and an opportunity

Youth Spiritist Educators and Coordinators interact with young people who are deeply immersed in this digital world. Ignoring this reality – or simply trying to fight it – doesn’t help.

The most promising approach seems to be educating young people on the mindful use of technology.

At the same time, a significant challenge arises for the evangelizers themselves: creating spaces for gathering that are different from the digital environment that already dominates much of these young people’s daily lives. Many spend the entire week in front of screens—on their cell phones, computers, social media, or digital school activities—and reach the end of the week with their minds already overstimulated and, often, exhausted by this information overload.

This young person, already overwhelmed by digital stimuli throughout the week, often doesn’t need yet another PowerPoint presentation at the Spiritist Center. Perhaps that is why the challenge today is to lead youth meetings and evangelization classes that place greater emphasis on presence, dialogue, and lived experience, without necessarily relying on screens, slides, or digital presentations. 

He often needs something to nourish his soul: candid conversations, social interaction, artistic activities, and meaningful human experiences.

Especially during one’s youth, certain attitudes can play a significant role in this process:

• promote open dialogue about social media and online experiences
• encourage critical thinking about digital content
• create meaningful opportunities for in-person interaction
• encourage projects, group activities, and shared experiences 

The goal is to foster free will, helping young people develop awareness and responsibility for their own choices.

Between screens and values: choices that made a difference

Returning to the story of our daughter – that eight-year-old girl who was desperate for a smartphone and who has now turned seventeen…

From this personal experience, I’d like to share a few lessons I’ve learned.

We know that, as parents, we get things right and we make mistakes. Parenting is never a perfect process – it’s a journey of trial and error, adjustments, and a lot of self-education.

But looking back, I believe that at least these three choices were crucial in the upbringing of our eldest daughter:

The first was to preserve childhood by providing space for free play – that unscripted play where imagination transforms simple objects into entire worlds and children learn to create, negotiate rules, and cope with frustration.

The second was to delay getting a smartphone for as long as possible. It wasn’t easy to stick to that decision in an environment where almost all of our peers already had one, but we realized that postponing that exposure allowed more time for other important childhood experiences.

And the third step was to introduce her to Spiritist Education at an early age. There we found a space for healthy interaction and reflection on the teachings of Jesus, which helps build a stronger inner foundation for dealing with life’s challenges – including those in the digital world.

Perhaps there is no perfect formula for raising children in the age of screens.

But I believe that when we manage to preserve childhood and promote Christian values, we are giving our children something far more powerful than any technology: a framework for living their lives with conscience and purpose.