The technologisation of education: philosophical reflections on being too plugged in

Abstract

If there is a salient defining condition of the modern age, it must surely be our tenacious belief in technology. We shall argue that our insatiable infatuation with the computer or ‘compuphilia’, as we herein dub it, represents a serious and growing threat to the mental health of school children. Computers may make communication easier, but they also ensure it is less intimate and more detached. A considerable literature is now accumulating to show a direct relationship between the depth of the bonds which students form with teachers, their level of connectedness, and their mental well‐being, which in turn determinately affects educational outcomes. We argue here that the more virtual the classroom becomes, the more disconnected students become.

Keywords:

• technology
• education
• well‐being
• relationships
• depersonalisation