Abstract
The article shows the main risks of digitalization, including spontaneous digitalization of children’s education, on the one hand, and possibilities of positive, developmental use of ‘digital’. It reveals conditions under which digitization can become a benefit, and a factor that destroys personality, culture and education. It is shown that digitalization can be a positive phenomenon if children are educated in the attitude towards the ‘number’ as a tool that helps in organizing cognitive activities, behaviour and self-understanding. The authors formulate the idea of the digital environment as a new environment for human existence. The article marks out requirements for the organization of the developing digital environment, shows the possibility of performance of adult mediating functions in the conditions of digitalization and the historical crisis of childhood. It shows that L.S. Vygotsky’s idea of authentic learning and education through the organization of the environment is necessary and possible to apply to the digital environment. Empirical data are presented.
Among the most pronounced trends in the development of modern society, digitalization acts as one of the most significant. From the technological point of view, digitalization is the process of converting analogue (physical) information and changing indicators of various production and business models into a digital format. From this point of view, digitization is undoubtedly a benefit, since it allows for a significant improvement and acceleration of processes such as gathering, processing and coordinating large volumes of information, and therefore, decision-making and management of any production.
Achievements in the field of digitalization of production processes can be transferred to the sphere of everyday life (the concept of the Internet of Things, smart home, smart city, etc.), which will enable energy resource savings, optimize transportation movement, reduce expenses for household processes, optimize user costs and time, etc. However, the uncontrollability of scientific and technological progress, despite the fluctuations in its dynamics, is not only changing technological processes but is rapidly changing the human habitat itself and its biological functioning.
Futurologists, culturologists, philosophers and IT specialists predict the emergence and complexity of such information technologies (primarily, AI — artificial intelligence) that will make it possible to create a babysitter robot, girlfriend, companion, cat and even a child, which will replace living beings. In other words, so-called technological entities will emerge, including human-like robots (Motorina, 2023).
It is also predicted that the human brain in future may be combined with a computer and other digital devices, which will increase the capabilities of attention, memory and in general the processes of cognition and information-processing.
The ‘charms’ of digitalization turn it into an ideologeme of modernity. It extends to the digitalization of education, which supposedly solves all its problems: of everyday life, which relieves people of everyday worries; the digitalization of production and the economy, which frees people from routine labour; medicine, as the possibility of replacing bodily deficiencies with digital devices, etc.
‘The efficiency, innovation, and speed of a digitally connected world can expand what is possible for everyone – including those who historically have been marginalized’ — the 2019 report The Age of Digital Interdependence: Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (The Age of Digital Interdependence [TADI], 2019) notes. 1
While there are downsides to global digitalization – ‘Modern technologies can be used to erode security and violate privacy’ (TADI, 2019) – the authors nevertheless optimistically conclude that opportunities for human progress will prevail over challenges ‘if we join together in a spirit of cooperation and inclusiveness’ (TADI, 2019).
One can think that humanity has faced a very difficult problem of the emergence of a historically new human environment. Moreover, this new environment is so rapidly filling and replacing the space of human life that it makes it difficult and impossible to quickly master it and to master it effectively.
At the same time, a psychological, sociocultural approach to the analysis of human problems caused by the rapid growth of the new environment shows that the challenges of digitalization are not only related to issues of legal or physical security of the individual and society, privacy of personal life and mastering digital competencies. They already give rise to a multitude of psychological, personal and socio-cultural problems.
Literature review
According to Internet World Stats, as of 30 June 2022, the International Internet Agency registered 5,385,798,406 Internet users (67.9% of the inhabitants of the Earth) (Internetworldstats, 2022). 2 Compare, for example, 50.1%, or 3,675,824,813 inhabitants, in 2016 (Internetlivestats, 2016). 3 These data show that the digital environment is rapidly expanding.
This seriously affects not only behaviour, personality, cognitive functions, but also language processes, which manifests itself not only in the appearance of new words or digital slang. Linguists note the emergence of a new so-called linguistics 2.0 (communication 2.0), which is characterized by the specificity of communication, due to ‘communication from keyboard to screen’ (over-connectivity, anonymity, network communication, blurring the boundaries of public and private, multimedia content, etc. (Goroshko, 2016).
The new environment gives rise to a variety of terms describing psychological and socio-psychological phenomena accompanying digitalization: Internet communication, virtual space, virtual person, Internet linguistics, network personality and psyche, Internet thinking, etc. (Kirillova & Pestova, 2017).
In our research, based on observations, surveys and parental questionnaires (with a total of 630 respondents who had children aged three to 13), it was found that children frequently start engaging in the digital environment from an early age, and this happens under the influence of parents who find it convenient for their children to be ‘self-occupied’. Of children, 53% of preschoolers, 77% of elementary school students and practically all teenagers have unrestricted access to gadgets; 94% of families have an Internet connection. Free access to the Internet has 26% of preschoolers and 51% of junior students. A questionnaire survey of students of Novosibirsk and Novokuznetsk Universities (the sample for the study comprised 70 students) revealed that slightly more than 50% of them are ‘constantly online’, while the rest go online five or more times a day (Bolshunova, 2021).
The forced total introduction of distance learning and online employment during the pandemic accelerated the growing role of the digital environment in people’s lives and spurred the debate on the socio-cultural and psychological consequences of digitalization, including its impact on the development of children’s identity.
Vygotsky (Vygotsky, 1991) showed that true training and education are possible only through the organization of the social environment: ‘The social environment is the true lever of the educational process, and the teacher’s overall role reduces to adjusting this lever’ (p. 83).
Over a millennium of living in an object, social and cultural environment, adults have learned to use it to correct the development of children, realizing the function of mediation in introducing the child to the world of society.
The digital environment is changing the life of each subsequent generation so rapidly that psychologists suggest that modern adults have lost their mediating function (Elkonin, 1992; Wenger, 2008). The historical crisis of childhood has grown to the point of its disappearance (Elkind, 1981; Postman, 1994).
Scientists and practitioners (psychologists, philosophers, linguists, culturologists, political scientists and pedagogues) studying various aspects of the new human environment (Sokolova, 2012), the ‘new digital reality’ (Auzan, 2019), 4 the ‘new dimension of social communication existence’ (Leushkin, 2017), demonstrate contradictory attitudes towards the socio-psychological and cultural consequences of digitalization (Kirillova, 2019; Shentseva, 2012). Some express a predominantly cautious attitude (Fortunatov et al., 2014), while others are mostly positive (Berulava & Berulava, 2012; Leushkin, 2017, etc.).
On the one hand, the availability of digital devices and a digital environment is undoubtedly useful and can optimize the processes of information analysis and processing, management, modelling in the field of economics, prosthetics, replacement of diseased organs in medicine and scientific research, in forecasting, in education, etc.
Proponents of digitalization believe that the multiplication of network interactions reflects the civilizational challenges of modernity and provides for overcoming such problems as the growing amount of information, uncertainty of the future, need to navigate in dynamic, fluid spatio-temporal relations, etc. Digitalization will also make it possible to equip everyday life, improve urban management, develop affordable educational technologies, etc. (Berulava & Berulava, 2012; Leushkin, 2017; Nazarchuk, 2012). These problems require appropriate technical equipment and skills.
However, on the other hand, the unjustified and uncontrolled ‘digitization’ of a person’s entire life is dangerous due to the emergence of such catastrophic changes in socio-cultural and socio-psychological processes as the deontologization of communication, activity and their results (Leushkin, 2017; Nazarchuk, 2012). In an artificially constructed virtual world, ‘presence in the world’ is not based on personal experience and relations with others (empathy, participation, value-mediated acceptance or rejection, etc.) but is formalized according to a certain algorithm, ‘a scheme received by a person from the outside’ (Fortunatov et al., 2014, p. 242).
For example, Goroshko (2016) singles out an important feature of virtual communication, such as anonymity and the resulting blurring of the boundaries between public and private, inappropriate emancipation, trolling, verbal aggression, as well as over-connectivism and subjectivity, when it is impossible to verify the reliability of information — problems with determining the authorship of text and content, etc. (Goroshko, 2016).
Ermolova and Tyutyunikova (2019a) focus on the fact that one of the generally recognized functions of social networks is the possibility of self-expression, and one of the features of their influence is the idealization of the image of ‘I’, with bodily detachment from the interlocutor and the impossibility of verifying information. ‘Such situation creates many opportunities for the development of narcissistic personality traits. Virtual space makes it possible to manage self-representation and create a network identity’ (Ermolova & Tyutyunikova, 2019b, p.22).
Significantly, these features of virtual communication can be embedded in behaviour and transferred to real-world communication. They create simulacra of communication and form corresponding personal traits (Prensky, 2001; Velasco, 2020). Particularly alarming is the growing conflict between traditional moral values and the values of the information society (Baychik, 2020; Chernikova, 2014), which is revealed in bullying and cyberbullying, in various forms of social ostracism (ghosting, orbiting, phubbing, cancellation culture, etc.; Boykina, 2022).
Thus, digitalization, for all its pragmatic benefits, threatens sovereignty and personal freedom and is already manifesting itself in the erasure of the ego-boundaries. Writers and futurologists predicted such risks a hundred years ago. For example, in his anti-utopia ‘We’, published in 1920, Yevgeny Zamyatin (2016) puts a very significant text into the mouth of the ‘Benefactor’ of the digitized world: ‘I ask: what have people — from the very cradle — prayed for, dreamed, tormented? For someone to tell him or her once what happiness is and then chain them to that happiness. What else are we doing now if not this?’ In this ‘paradise they no longer know desires, they do not know pity, they do not know love, there are the blessed with an operated fantasy . . .’ (Zamyatin, 2016, p. 170).
The signs of the dependence on ‘events’ of the virtual world can be found in such personal characteristics as the dominant self-presentation, which is especially manifested in bloggers’ hype behaviour, the dependence of self-esteem on external evaluation, rating (the number of ‘clicks’) in social networks, in manifestation of emotional coldness and atrophy of sympathy (videotape the event and posting it on a social network is often more important than providing assistance), a decrease in interest in the individuality of another. Such manifestations are probably due to the anonymity of communicators, the tendency to encroach on the world of meanings of the ‘Other’.
All this depletes the inner world of Internet network users. This manifests itself in fashion on ‘pop’ bloggers, and at the same time in increasing detachment and uncertainty in the situation of real communications (fabbing, for example), accompanied by distrust of genuine human manifestations (Boykina, 2022; Krupenikova & Kurbatov, 2014; Malygin et al., 2015; Sokolova, 2012; Titova et al., 2014; Vanden Abeele et al., 2019).
The study and its results
Comparative study on two samples of adolescent age: active (N = 33) and inactive (N = 37) users of the social network Vkontakte aimed to compare personality traits diagnosed by A. Leontiev’s ‘Purpose-in-Life Test’, PILD, Khromov’s adaptation of the ‘Big Five’ 5PFQ and Schwartz Value Survey, SVS, questionnaire. The findings indicate that active users exhibit relatively more pronounced impulsivity, capriciousness and selfishness and are more prone to isolation, coldness towards others, a tendency to escape from reality and dissatisfaction with the lived portion of life, while respect and responsibility for cultural and religious customs and traditions are less represented. Inactive users showed greater emotional stability and responsiveness, ability to empathize and cooperate, responsibility for commitments taken on, and they are comparatively less selfish (Matvienko & Bolshunova, 2016). However, active users also showed a higher level of kindness and friendliness towards close people, attraction to novelty and change, a need for meaning in life, as well as a tendency towards hedonism. The contradictory results of the study on the personality traits of active users may indicate immaturity and psychological issues.
Another comparative study conducted by Ermolova and Tyutyunikova (2019b), also on two adolescent samples, using ‘Narcissistic personality traits’ and ‘Diagnosis of narcissism’ questionnaires, showed that active users of social networks more clearly manifest such narcissistic traits as ‘Need for constant attention and admiration’ and ‘Being overoccupied with the feeling of envy’. Active users of social networks are more inclined to the growth of regressive tendencies with fantasies of unity with nature and withdrawal from social relations, which is reflected in the mechanism of narcissistic regulation ‘Return to archaic fantasies’. More active users of social networks in a situation of threatened self-image are prone to intense experiences, which are manifested in a sense of their own fragility, uncontrollable fear and anxiety, a sense of loneliness and self-aggression (Ermolova & Tyutyunikova, 2019b).
In the study performed under our scientific supervision, Smaglyuk (2022) confirmed the previously obtained data. High dependence on the smartphone (nomophobia) in adolescence is accompanied by emotional instability and impulsivity, a more pronounced need for attention and support, a decrease in responsibility for the situation and their own life; at the same time, they tend to avoid conflicts and have a tendency towards entertainment (Smaglyuk, 2022; Smaglyuk & Bolshunova, 2022).
We have obtained similar data in a number of other studies, which show that children, adolescents and young people at risk of digital addiction have problems with self-regulation, the emotional sphere (its excessive intellectualization); they have more pronounced egocentricity, and values such as mercy and unselfishness are less represented (Bolshunova, 2022).
Discussion of results
The results of various studies suggest that the success and prospects of digitalization are related not only and not so much to technological issues and the acquisition of necessary competencies by users. The main problem is related to understanding what the new digitized world will be like, what are the possible negative consequences for culture, relations between people, psyche and personality, and how they can be prevented.
Digital competence is undoubtedly necessary, since it provides significant preferences for the modern person (accessibility of information, improved processing capabilities, extensive networking, everyday conveniences, material security, greater freedom in choosing a profession and place of work, prestige, etc.). However, it is obvious that in addition to digital skills, special programmes and work aimed at safely introducing and mastering the digital environment are necessary, starting from childhood. Just as a child, with adequate adult mediation, gradually and comprehensively acquires subject, social and sociocultural environments, becoming a subject in relation to them, the actualization of subjectivity in relation to the virtual world and the digital environment is also necessary for children. Without the upbringing of children’s psychological and personal resilience in relation to the digital environment and the ability to manage their interactions with the virtual world, there is a threat of psychological and sociocultural transformation of personality, which is conditioned by co-dependence with the virtual world. The virtual environment = artificial intelligence, network thinking and a virtual personality, which is already beginning to be understood as the ‘subject of the Internet’ (Kirillova & Pestova, 2017). Such codependence, manifested by the ‘dystrophy’ of the individual’s sovereignty, is accompanied by the loss of the qualities necessary for the normal existence of a person and society, including participation (Bolshunova et al., 2023), authenticity of experiences, dominance on the other and intimacy in relations with loved ones, the capacity for novelty and creativity, etc., (Brodovskaya et al., 2019; Sloterdijk, 2005; Ukhtomsky, 2002) and replacing them with ‘social technology’ (Fortunatov et al., 2014).
Universal digitalization, for which society is not sufficiently psychologically prepared, creates a threat to the corrosion of the social, socio-cultural and material space of life. A person turns into a function of global virtual networks, becoming a marginal, impersonal and anonymous network ‘creature’ (Fortunatov, 2009). The abilities of authentic dialogue with the ‘Other’ (not with an anonymous avatar or a global network impersonal system or virtual personality) and inner self-dialogue are being lost. It is precisely through dialogue that self-discovery begins, one's inner world, sovereignty and intimacy are discovered, the boundaries between the self and the non-self are revealed (Bolshunova & Ustinova, 2016; Ermolova & Tyutyunikova, 2019b).
The presence of a new human living environment brings about a number of problems associated with the organization of safe education and upbringing of children. It is important to answer the following questions: What are the developmental functions of the digital environment? What does it mean to be a subject in relation to the digital world? How can adults perform the mediation functions in this new digital reality? What exactly is the negative influence of digitization on a child, and is it possible to prevent it? It is necessary to address the development of requirements for the organization of a psychologically and socially safe and developmental digital environment, as well as the development of digital technologies for children of different ages. Moreover, in the context of research on the historical crisis of childhood and the methodology of the cultural-historical approach, the issues of mediation by adults in the developmental functions of the digital environment are especially relevant (Elkonin, 1992; Wenger, 2008).
Let us formulate some opportunities for using digitalization in education.
– Digitalization increases the potential for working with information. However, it is important that the selection of information occurs in the context of cognitive development tasks, corresponds to morally positive content and suits the age capabilities. Thus, one of the tasks of mediating adult–child interaction with digital devices is teaching them efficient and purposeful selection of necessary information, which will require interaction with adults as carriers of self-regulation and goal-setting methods, higher forms of thinking and sociocultural norms.
– Digitalization implies the possibility for the teacher to model various phenomena for study. For a truly successful application of this method, the model must meet a number of requirements: correspond to the boundaries of the zone of proximal development of children, the age specifics of their thinking, assume a certain variability, correspond to the content of the educational task, etc. Only a well-trained adult is able to implement these conditions and offer them to children for learning. Such digital technologies are already in use. They are described, in particular, in an article by a group of authors (Mercer et al., 2019), which presents the possibility of teaching dialogue through its digital modelling in the context of the implementation of the ‘Thinking Together’ programme, which was implemented in English schools back in the 1960s (Mercer et al., 2019).
Computer modelling is also widely used to visualize the operation of various complex systems in biology, physics, engineering, etc. (Chekan & Fedulova, 2022).
– Digital technologies can be successfully used for the training and development of various mental functions. We have shown that by providing feedback on the success of certain actions and with the possibility of error correction, self-regulation, memory, attention, etc., can be effectively developed (Andronov & Bolshunova, 2020).
– Computer systems with the mediating role of an adult can be used to develop the research activity of schoolchildren by observing and investigating the behaviour of an object or its model under changing conditions (Moskvitina, 2019).
– It is obvious that information technologies can be used to compensate for impaired psychophysical functions (vision, hearing, motor skills, etc.), including for the optimization of inclusive education. However, it is important to note that the potential of digitalization to improve learning processes does not reduce the risk of Internet dependency. Insensitive qualities of the person appear (difficulties of communication in the real world and destruction of boundaries of image of the self, value-sense and emotional-will changes, etc.), which indicate a loss or insufficient level of subjectivity in relation to the digital environment.
It is necessary to develop psychologically oriented programmes for working with children and adolescents, the implementation of which precedes or accompanies the training of digital competencies. The content of these programmes should contain information about the risks of virtual reality and develop the ability to reflect. Programmes should be focused on age characteristics, as well as involve the cultivation of such relationships with the digital environment, in which the value and semantic horizons of human culture are preserved and developed, and there is a co-measurement of one’s relations with the characters of the virtual world with socio-cultural patterns. It is important to teach the child to be an expert in such interactions, to distinguish between the constructive and the destructive of a person and his world.
As part of such training, a teenager learns to identify necessary or unacceptable communications with the agents of the virtual space. At the same time, children are actualizing their self-knowledge and self-development. The function of adult mediation in the implementation of such programmes is to develop a subjective attitude to interactions in the virtual world. The consequences of eliminating adults from such mediation are well described in Golding’s (2021) anti-utopia ‘Lord of the Flies’. According to the plot, a group of children left without adults on the island after the crash gradually turns into a gang of violent, aggressive creatures (Golding, 2021).
Currently, the programme for the development of psychological protection from the negative influences of the digital environment in children of the senior preschool age (5–6 years) is undergoing testing. The choice of preschoolers’ age for implementing the programme is justified by the fact that according to the obtained data and other authors’ studies, there are disturbing changes in their development, primarily concerning the level of development of play activity (Krasilo, 2020; Veraksa et al., 2023).
This programme is an integral part of the ‘Children’s Development Programme in the Forms of Children’s Subculture’. The programme for preschoolers is called ‘Sociocultural development of children in the forms of play using fairy tales’. We have been implementing the programme in a number of preschool institutions in Novosibirsk and Novokuznetsk for 30 years, supplementing and modifying the content in accordance with the changes and problems that arise in society and in education (Bolshunova & Inchina, 2013). The programme is based on the following principles:
– Training and education should be organized in the forms of age-leading activities (for preschoolers in the forms, first of all, of role-playing games; Vygotsky, 2017).
– Most classes for preschoolers are organized as a dramatization game, where children themselves and/or puppet characters participate in a game that represents a specific scenario specially developed by the teacher, the basis of which is a fairy tale (author’s or folklore). The story includes the necessary educational and educational content (mathematical, linguistic, socio-cultural, etc.). Children master the necessary educational content in the game, solving certain tasks and overcoming difficulties as the plot develops. Thus, each task and problem presented by means of a fairy tale takes meaning for the child, its solution becomes motivated: you need to guess and solve the task, overcome difficulties, because otherwise the game will not be able to go on. It is important to note that the plot is not rigid; it can change in the context of any problems that arise during the course of the game.
– At this stage of development, a fairy tale acts as a special means of children’s thinking, which at this stage of development replaces logic for the child, being a transformed form of myth, as if specially addressed to the child. For example, complex moral categories are mastered by children through vivid symbols and images presented in folk and author’s fairy tales (Vasilisa the Beautiful is a symbol of kindness, intelligence, beauty; Serpent Gorynych in Slavic mythology personifies evil; Koshchey the Immortal symbolizes greed; fox in animal tales — cunning, etc.). Children master spatial, temporal, mathematical concepts and actions through involvement in joint activities with the characters of the fairy tale (to find the way according to the plan sent by one of the characters, to guess how to calculate the length of the bridge to cross the stream, etc.).
– Children’s communication with each other and with adults should be freely organized and personally oriented, based on acceptance of the other and self-acceptance.
– The values of mutual help, understanding and support, as well as the basic values of goodness, beauty and harmony, truth and truthfulness, underlie the realization of any classes.
– This type of activity makes special demands on the teacher. He or she should be able to play, as well as to perform the functions of the game director and scriptwriter, to reflect the process of play, to carry out dialogical interaction with children and be able to initiate and support dialogue between children (Bolshunova & Inchina, 2013; Bolshunova & Ustinova, 2016; Florenskaya, 2001; Ustinova, 2010).
Let us present the plot basis of one of the lessons aimed at subjective mastering of the digital environment by senior preschool children.
The children discover the disappearance of Luboznaika, a puppet character who is always present in the group and who usually participates in the games, establishes dialogue between children and helps children and the teacher. It turns out that Luboznaika has been playing on the computer, met the Digital Man and ‘stuck’ to the computer. He wants to play together with the children, draw, run, but he cannot. The computer will not let him go. Children help Luboznaika to free himself by involving him in joint games, guessing ‘magic’ riddles. Then the children together with the teacher discuss why it happened that Luboznaika stuck to the computer, what the computer is for, and share their comments and advice.
The analysis of the lesson’s results showed that for a third of children, playing on digital devices remains more attractive, and their support for the position of the majority of the lesson participants remains formal. At the same time, children were able to formulate advice to Luboznaika on their own, with little support from teachers. Children also noted that playing and doing things together is more interesting than sitting in front of a computer. The obtained results indicate that it is necessary to continue and improve the programme of classes.
In general, the programme includes at least 10 classes with children and works with parents, aimed at teaching them how to organize psychologically and physiologically safe interaction of children of different ages with digital devices.
Conclusion
Literature review on the problem of digitization and the results of researches indicates that modern society is distinguished by the presence of a well-developed digital environment in the field of governance, economy, everyday life, education, etc. The prospects for human development in a rapidly changing digital world are ambiguous and contradictory, which requires special efforts aimed at developing the ability to interact with the virtual space adequately, starting from childhood, while maintaining and developing a subjective attitude towards the digital environment. Such an attitude implies understanding that the digital environment primarily serves as a highly efficient means of organizing human activity. However, such an attitude towards ‘the digital’ can only arise through the mediation of adults introducing children to the digital world. Given the rapid pace of digitalization, it is necessary to develop special programmes that involve not only the user’s acquisition of digital skills but also preparation for interaction with the digital environment. This preparation should start from childhood and teach individuals to resist the pressures of the virtual world, maintain independence and authenticity in the digital realm.
Apparently, the methodological principle formulated by Lomov (1966) regarding the tasks of engineering psychology remains relevant: adapting technology to human psychological capabilities and needs, rather than adapting humans to technical design (digital environment). Following this approach will prevent the negative consequences of digitization and teach how to use its possibilities for improving the world and humanity.