Did the COVID-19 pandemic boost the spread of digital devices in households? The Italian situation from an educational perspective

Digital devices and platforms have been of great help in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic period. In the educational field, they made it possible to cope with social distancing through the delivery of remote teaching. This was even more felt in Italy, which was among the first countries to be affected by the pandemic and among those hardest hit. In this article, we ask ourselves whether the digital endowments of families with young children at this time have increased compared to the pre-pandemic period and whether the families themselves would be able to withstand the impact of a new period of distancing. Comparing data from our pre- and post-pandemic questionnaires, and from interviews we conducted over the past two years, against data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics, we conclude that the digital endowment of families of primary school children is not significantly more robust than it was for families who faced the pandemic period. This evidence must be kept in mind by policymakers and educators, so that, if a new confinement period occurred, steps might be taken with the utmost urgency to bridge any dangerous digital divides.