Smartphones and Adolescence: Emancipation or Slavery?

Papers

Publication date:

October 2025

In November 2023, a group of families from the Poblenou neighborhood in Barcelona decided to respond to the growing unease caused by an unquestioned social consensus: that starting high school was the right time to give their sons and daughters a smartphone. The movement gained more traction than expected, and thousands of families from across the country joined in. One of the most active participants, Xavier Casanovas, explains here —in a brief and clear way— the reasons that led them to call for putting technology back in its rightful place before it's too late.

Culture & Society

Education

Youth

Modernism & Post-Modernism

Author

Xavier

Casanovas

Professor in the Chair of Ethics at IQS - Ramon Llull University. He holds a degree in mathematics and a PhD in philosophy, with a doctoral thesis on faith in progress based on Karl Löwith. Between 2014 and 2021, he was director of Cristianisme i Justícia (Christianity and Justice), and he is currently a member of its social area. He has been vice-president of the Federació d'Entitats per la Justícia Global (Federation of Entities for Global Justice) (2017-2021) and coordinator of the Plataforma per una fiscalitat justa, ambiental i solidària (Platform for Fair, Environmental and Solidarity Taxation) (2014-2020). He is one of the driving forces behind the Mobile-Free Adolescence initiative, which emerged in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona in 2023. At Cristianisme i Justícia, he has published Booklet CJ 170 Tax Justice, a Global Struggle and Paper 27 From Artificial Intelligence to the Immortality of the Soul.