Paper Short Abstract:

How to reduce the usage of smartphones by students is debated in many educational systems. But at the same time schools are eager to digitalize. Teachers, thus, are asked to balance conflicting roles. Analyzing my interviews with mothers who are also educators and users of smartphones, I try to understand how speaking with ‘plural voices’ affects my interviewees reflections on smartphones in educational settings.

Paper Abstract:

‘Students get easily distracted and their attention span is getting lower by the day – because they are addicted to their smartphones’ – this is a common complaint in media criticism. Media criticism has always focused on youth and education (Maase ‘Schmutz und Schund’ 1997), not only regarding the media content (Schönberger: ‘Medienkritik’ 2021), but also regarding media usage (Bareither: ‘Alltäglichkeit’ ZEKW 2019). How to reduce the usage of smartphones (Kanz: 'A matter of pace' forthc.) is prominently debated in many education systems. But at the same time schools are eager to digitalize and to prepare students for using digital technologies. Thus, teachers are being asked to balance conflicting roles. They are expected to limit the smartphone usage of their students, but they also need to incorporate modern technology into their teaching. Also, teachers have different experiences with the usage of smartphones, drawing from their personal media usage as well as from their experiences as parents. Thus, this paper focusses on the shifts in perspectives taken by people interviewed as teachers, as parents, and as experts of their everyday lives.

Based on interviews I conducted since 2023 on the restricted use of smartphones among mothers who are also educators/teachers, I try to understand how speaking with ‘plural voices’ affects my interviewees reflections on the usage of smartphones.

This study is part of my postdoctoral project on a longing for “authenticity” in a digitalized and economized society.