Our daily lives are so permeated by the Internet that at times it becomes an invisible technology. Interact, inform ourselves, access products and services, learn, today each of these actions are enhanced by access to connectivity to Internet.
But not only for adults, the social life of boys and girls increasingly develops on social networks and this trend is affecting their concentration and learning.
This is especially true for girls, since they tend to spend more time on social networks than boys. On Internet Day, it is essential that we ask ourselves how to ensure that technological advancement does not negatively affect your well-being.
¿What is the starting point?
According to the World Bank, around three quarters of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean are Internet users, a lower proportion than that of North America (91%) and that of the European Union (85%). In addition to this, mobile broadband through smartphones is the main means of Internet access for homes in our region. In fact, GSMA points out that by 2025, smartphones will represent 83% of total connections, on average, in the region, while now they represent 76%
Let’s think that this percentage is not only increasing, but it is most likely that in a few years coverage will become total. The alternatives to guarantee connectivity both for the general population, as well as in educational settings, are increasingly varied and also more economical. The expansion of satellite connectivity is just one phenomenon that we can mention due to the relevance it is having on the Latin American agenda.
What aspects should we not lose sight of?
According to the new report “Technology on its terms”UNESCO warns that exposure to image-based content driven by algorithms can have particularly detrimental effects on girls’ self-esteem and body image, and affect their ability to learn.
For example, Facebook research found that 32% of teenage girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. Added to this, in OECD countries with available data, 12% of 15-year-old girls reported having been victims of cyberbullying, compared to 8% of boys.
Another thing to keep in mind is that girls still face biased gender norms and stereotypes that ultimately hinder their academic success and impact their career choices. In addition to affecting their personal well-being, it also deters them from pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Along these lines, girls’ confidence is affected from an early age with mathematical anxiety much greater than that of boys. According to the 2023 PISA study, math anxiety accounts for at least a quarter of the total variation in math performance across OECD countries.
Without going any further, according to data from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in the age range from 6 to 8 years old, 33% of girls consider themselves good at mathematics, a discipline belonging to the STEM learning field. However, between 9 and 10 years old, although the level of confidence in their abilities for this discipline decreases for both genders, it falls more in the case of girls: only 11% consider themselves good in mathematics, compared to 20% of the kids.
It is clear that demonizing technology is not the answer, and there are no shortcuts either. By working on these challenges together, it is possible to ensure that technology not only does not negatively impact the well-being of girls and women, but rather is a tool that enhances their skills and opportunities. Some projects that inspire us in Latin America are:
- STEM Girls (Mexico): an initiative that has a network of mentors specialized in different STEM professions, who seek to inspire other girls, adolescents and young people so that they know that they too can have a career in these areas of knowledge. It is essential to focus on empathy and have female roles to draw inspiration from.
- Many more (El Salvador): Its mission is to facilitate access to education for girls and young women so that they can develop higher education in their area of choice, access decent jobs and income, be economically autonomous and develop their own life projects.
- One Thousand Women in AI (Latin America): To create new leadership, it is key that more and more women can create and produce with Artificial Intelligence. Empower them so that they can build solid technical foundations and offer spaces of trust so that they really feel and perceive themselves as women capable of building AI solutions for socio-productive improvement, to lead with AI, to democratize its access or to become experts.
In it Internet Day It is key that we work from multi-sector alliances with concrete proposals based on qualitative-quantitative data to transform the challenge into an opportunity, and the opportunity into action, with a clear objective: to give precise and sustainable tools to more girls and women to release their fears, empower their learnings and to be the future leaders of tomorrow.
General Director of Bounty EdTech.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
