Is talent development and support suffering from societal change?
What digitalisation is doing to our talents (1)
Last week I wanted to give a brief overview of how times have changed, what football pitches looked like 50 years ago and what circumstances we encounter today, how children used to organise themselves back then and what their leisure-time management looks like today (see post).
Now one could have a splendid discussion of the pros and cons of these circumstances, but that won't change them. Societal change is advancing, and that has consequences in every area:
Is talent development and support suffering as a result?
With that, I'd like to pick up on another aspect of societal change that significantly influences talents and their development and support, and whose own development is in turn unstoppable and progressing exponentially: digitalisation - and in this context, initially just social media.
When Mark Zuckerberg launched his product Facebook in 2004, that changed all our lives in many ways. Today there are numerous similar platforms with different characteristics and areas of focus. What they all have in common is the forming of a digital network, a kind of communication tool, and the sharing of information. The platform operators benefit from users' information – who unwittingly disclose locations, images, preferences, opinions, ratings and other data and make it available for use. The relevant, opaque terms of use grant these companies far-reaching powers. This means that not only can advertising campaigns be specifically targeted, but political elections can also be significantly influenced, as the “special investigation into the influencing of the 2016 United States election campaign” (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderermittlung_zur_Beeinflussung_des_Wahlkampfs_in_den_Vereinigten_Staaten_2016) showed.
You're asking yourselves what that has to do with our talents?
A survey by Statista shows how many young people own – and therefore also use – a mobile phone: “Around 9 percent of 6- to 7-year-old children in Germany own their own smartphone. Among 8- to 9-year-olds it's 27 percent, and in the 10- to 11-year-old age group already 58 percent. The proportion of smartphone owners among 12- to 13-year-olds stands at 81 percent. Smartphones have become an important part of everyday life for many, and dealing with smartphones already begins in childhood.
For many children, smartphone use happens without an adult's guidance or supervision, and schools, too, are often unable to convey age-appropriate ways of dealing with social media. The incentives from the “web” are so tempting and so cleverly built on psychology that sensible, healthy use is almost impossible for children and teenagers. The scene on the streets, but also the many discussions about “screen time,” “phone bans” and the like with children, demonstrate this impressively. And even then, we generally only see the tip of the iceberg. How many hours the smartphones and tablets run hot unsupervised, we'd honestly rather not know.
But I'm drifting off – let's stay with social media for now. And yes, precisely because children's use of electronic devices goes unsupervised and far too extensive, they also consume a great deal of information unfiltered and unreflected. “Reels and short videos,” underpinned by smart algorithms, encourage this consumption behaviour and create an addiction that lures people into lingering on these platforms. Even self-aware adults have to set alarms or timers so as not to sink into a frenzy of image consumption.
Am I exaggerating? I don't think so. We should honestly ask ourselves whether, and how often, this has already happened to us: following images and information without meaning to, and spending minutes and hours in front of screens as a result. If we ourselves struggle to use social networks sensibly, how much more challenging must that be for our kids?
The sheer quantity of social media use shows up directly in a lack of exercise, in reluctance to move (caused by screen time), in the consequences for our eyes, and often in postural damage too, right through to “smartphone thumb” – crazy, isn't it! But the effect of social media use also comes from the quality of the content.
The effects show up in poorly developed consumer behaviour, irrational brand loyalty, a lack of connection to reality, and a disturbed sense of self-perception. In individual cases, it even leads to bullying via social networks.
To make matters worse, the internet never forgets. Once something is posted, the information can't be taken back. And how hard it is for us adults to question the background of certain information. The truth of individual posts, the motivation of the author, and the quality of their journalistic work are not checked. Incidentally, that also applies to this post, which is why I publish my posts on the pages of “KICK-CAREER.COM”. There you'll also find background on me and on my motivation for publishing these texts (see post).
So what can associations, clubs and coaches do, and how can parents and talents deal with this topic?
Well, the “non-family” environment can only act by informing and setting a good example. But please, dear associations, support the clubs and coaches with information material. How can responsible use of social media and electronic devices in general be achieved? Can coaches also hold parents accountable? How can coaches address this topic with the children?
The far greater lever, of course, lies with the family environment. Since – as one can hardly fail to gather from my “first opinion” last week – I'm an advocate of taking responsibility for one's own actions, educational conversations with the children come first. Of course, parents also act, and especially so, in their role as role models. But should the “addictive effect,” particularly of “reels and short videos,” become noticeable, don't condemn your child – instead, try to guide and inform them on the topic. Ultimately, that can also mean taking away electronic devices, but please not in the guise of punishment. This calls for a delicate touch, and sometimes, especially during puberty, support from outside as well.
My appeal to the talents: question your own behaviour. Try to listen to yourselves while you're online. Take note of how long you intend to go online and for what reason, and how that actually turns out. FASCINATING!
At the outset, the broader heading of digitalisation led me to the topic of “social media.” I think online games can be mentioned in the same breath. The effects are similar. The addictive potential is almost even higher.
Next week I'd like to talk about another effect of digitalisation, focusing mainly on coaches. Coaches often still act as if we were in the age of industrialisation. Why?