Interação virtual e desenvolvimento infantil: reflexões a partir de MEAD

Abstract

The presence of digital information and communication technologies has intensified itself in children's daily lives. The present research aims to understand what is the implication of the presence of DICTs in early childhood, in terms of how it affects children's interactive processes. Our work aims to reflect to what extent DICTs interfere in the interactive processes of child development. The investigation takes a hermeneutic and dialectic perspective, with a bibliographic methodological approach. Our research shows its pertinence and relevance for education and teacher training, as it extends itself as the tackler of a social issue of utmost importance, considering that it deals with child development and its relationship with technologies, which has profound implications for human life. This dissertation is divided into five chapters, the first is the introduction to the theme, the second will deal with the methodological route, the literature review and its findings. The third chapter focuses on exploring when, chronologically, discussions and concerns about early childhood and child development began. The fourth chapter starts from John Mead's ideas, from which we will seek to better understand human child development and the importance of interactive processes with other children, as it is from these interactions that the constitution of the self begins, the child comes to understand that they have a place in society and that they take up space in many diverse groups that they insert themselves in. In this context, Educational Institutions become places that make interactive processes possible. We seek to understand and reflect on the role of playing and games for child development. The fifth chapter contains a dialogue with the researched authors about DICTs and their impacts on human development in early childhood, as well as reflections about the findings during the process of our research. The sixth chapter encompasses the final considerations and the results, in which it is clear that the intensification of the presence of DICTs in early childhood brought many consequences, such as aggressiveness, obesity, difficulty concentrating, delay in language development, addiction to technology, difficulties in regard to dealing with emotions, with consequent educational losses. Children may start to have a preference for interacting with technological means instead of direct contact with other children, which puts them under the risk of exposing themselves to aggressive content and cause them general confusion between which is fiction and which is reality. The research has revealed that the scenario of the present is going through a technological revolution, authors like Desmunget and the Brazilian Pediatric Society itself are alerting to the risks of premature and excessive exposure of children to DICTs. The works sought in the research reveal that a substitution of real interactions by virtual interactions is occurring, and this movement is interfering with children’s development. In this context the educational institutions emerge as privileged spaces, which potentialize real interactions and human development.