Page 16 - Issue 68

ELITE
ELITE
Not only that, but the panel discussion
between Dr. Asmaa Ezzat: Assistant
Economics Professor at FEPS, Ms. Hala
Abu-Khatwa: Advocacy and
Communications Manager for UNICEF
Egypt, and Prof. Mervat Abou Oaf
Professor of Practice at the Department of
Journalism & Mass Communication,
AUC, was very fruitful. And personally
this was one of the best sessions, because
it was very related to the evolutive
Egyptian context, and based on their
different yet complementary fields of
expertise. They discussed several
dimensions of the impact of social media -
and generally of screens- on child
development and wellbeing. For example,
the key role of parents, teachers and
educators in ensuring the well-being of
children and adolescents, but also the
methods that can be used by parents if
they try to support and protect their
children from the rapid ad sudden
evolution of technology and media.
Furthermore, the speakers also
highlighted that the considerable impact
of media is not only implicated on
children but also on the parents. The
discussion has also shed some light on the
considerable role of drama and cinema,
and also of media literacy, in order to
raise awareness about certain topics and
issues and be able too understand and
have the correct tools to understand
certain matters related to our day-to-day
life.
VOL 1, ISSUE 68
Moreover, the 3rd session’s papers
discussed remarkably interesting and
recent topics, particularly the impact of
TikTok on child wellbeing, especially on
child influencers, and the consequences of
ChatGPT among university students.
These papers had a considerable weight
as they discussed fairly new and modern
topics that are not as present in literature,
especially in the Arab/Middle Eastern
context. On one hand, for the paper
about TikTok, the researcher explored
the moral and psychological implications
of being a child influencer, which are not
letting them live a so-called “normal”
childhood. On the other hand, the
methodology used in the ChatGPT paper
was the most striking because they used
multiple experiment methods to evaluate
the impact of the AI chatbot on creativity
and innovation, problem solving skills
and risk tolerance. This timely paper is
very relevant to our context and
especially studying its implications on
university students is important.
Discussing the socio-economic
implications on child welfare is crucial. In
the first paper, the researchers discussed
the repercussions of food price increase
one children’s education and the parents
choosing certain schools over others, due
to financial strains and difficulties.