Dear Director Feltri,
I read the child who died in Ventimiglia and then found in a cottage. Fortunately, everything ended well, but I can’t help but ask me: how is it possible that a child disappears like this in a moment? I am a father too, I know that little is enough, but maybe today we are too distracted. Perhaps the mobile phone steals our gaze, presence, attention. What do you think about it?
Adriano Zema
Dear Adriano,
What happened in Ventimiglia offers us a precious opportunity to reflect on a theme we prefer to ignore: the fragility of our children and the unforgivable distraction of adults. It is not a question of blaming someone in particular. It is that we now all live at the mercy of a screen, owned more than users of our technological devils. Just a moment. A notification. A message. A photo that distracts us. And a child disappears. It moves away. It is lost. Or, worse, drown.
Do you know how many children die every year in Italy by drowning? About forty. Out of a total of about 330 deaths from drowning every year. And half of the little ones who die in the pool is less than 9 years old. Do you know how long it takes because a child disappears to sight under water? Less than twenty seconds. Winds. Seconds. I repeat: twenty seconds of distraction can be fatal.
Once certain tragedies were rare. Not because they were safer times, but because we were more present, more vigilant, more attentive, less distracted by the chaos and emptiness that today butt. We looked at the children in the eyes, we followed them, we played with them. Today no. Let’s shake, that’s how it is said? Let’s make stories on social media. We smile on the phone and not to those in front of us.
We are fathers and mothers connected, but to the net, that is, disconnected from the reality, by the living flesh of our affections.
A child does not care if you published a successful Reel. He wants you to look at him. That you follow him. That you are there.
ATTENTION: I’m not doing the preaching. I look at me well. I also had my moments of distraction. But today I see too many mothers and dads transformed into digital zombies, with their eyes fixed on a screen, while the children get lost in the shadows. And we don’t only talk about the sea or swimming pools. Children also vanish on the street, in the parks, in the squares. Ventimiglia’s little one was lucky. But how many are not? A change of mentality is needed. A recovery of awareness. The mobile phone can be turned off. Life, no.
Children do not need “present online” parents.
They need parents present, and that’s it. And maybe, dear Adriano, the next time we want to post the photo of the ice cream, let’s look around.
Maybe there is a little one who just needs a glance to save his life.