It's political because the people pushing for it usually are conservatives who don't like the modern ways of life and/or education. It's questionable whether they actually want to help the society or just force people into their own ways. They might even think they're helping, but actually do the opposite.
Researchers often do research based on their world view. Did these people also try to research what happens if they integrate the technology into education and teach children about the possible dangers of it, or did they focus on just whatever could confirm their world view?
Thanks for your explanation. I am just suspicious of anyone disregarding a study for perceived political convenience without any explanation at all. But I get it now.
That's preposterous. I'm as left-wing as can be and I think that smartphones and social media are a plague. Anecdotally, in my experience my left-leaming acquaintances are the ones more likely to be aware of the dangers of social media.
Then you and your acquaintances are unusual. In my experience, the left-leaning people are pushing for more digital learning. In my country, every left-leaning political party has it as a part of their program. In EU, there's an entire left-wing party based around digital stuff (Pirate).
The Establishment wants to be the only channel into young minds, that way theirs is the only ideology to get into their minds.. with phones and social media, young people can get other ideas, Ideas that the establishment considers the wrong ideas
This is just about school hours... Kids can do whatever they want outside of the classroom. They didn't allow me to play my gameboy in class either, but I still played that thing for many many hours.
Independent of any judgement of the particular research at hand: everything about this is political. Lots of people, in particular parents but also others, dislike and fear that young people are losing their life on "screens", i.e. mostly smartphones, gaming.
Note the "dislike and fear", which is fully subjective and fundamentally not based on evidence. This is regardless of whether there actually is data to support this position; the fear exists nonetheless, and data can only back it up or contradict their intuition.
Most politicians have children, and most of the voting body has children.
why do you presuppose a political motive for the researchers? What's political about this?