At one point in life, sound-based entertainment was king.
Families would gather around the giant radio, prominently and proudly displayed as the centerpiece of any respectable living room, to listen to immaculately produced audio stories, musicals, soap operas, news reports, etc.
Then television came into the scene and changed everything.
Screens now reign supreme; they are everywhere. They are intrusive, pervasive, and highly addictive. They overstimulate our senses, thanks to relentless technological advances in digital displays and a new collective taste we have developed for frantically edited video content.
Our relationship with screens starts from a very young age nowadays. Screens have become the new pacifier that parents use to keep their kids entertained, a practice that has been proven to affect children's cognitive and social development. Luckily, action spawns reaction. Perhaps screen fatigue is one of the many reasons behind a new explosion of audio-based entertainment.
In the following video story, you will learn about FABA, a company established in the Treviso region of Italy, about 40 minutes from the incredible Venice. That area of Italy is filled with innovative people and is home to many great engineers and tech entrepreneurs.
Matteo Fabbrini, one of FABA's founders, comes from a lineage of entrepreneurs who have profoundly impacted the local community. FABA is a company focused on sound-based, interactive edutainment for children and families. They produce and curate beautiful audio stories - in different languages - that children can safely enjoy alone or in the company of family members and teachers.
Enjoy the video story below and explore some of the resources listed.
"They (your kids) see you with a smart phone in your hands all day,
and what they want to do is just simply have the smartphone...
...You're just providing them the same dependency that you have."
Matteo Fabbrini.
OTHER RESOURCES
Are you interested in learning more about this topic?
This story tackles different themes, from the way that screens affect children, to the rise of audio media, to the different mechanisms that take place when people listen to sound based entertainment. Here are a few papers and researchers that may be interested to check out to dig deeper into those subjects:
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Muppalla, Sudheer et al. (2023) Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Child Development: An Updated Review and Strategies for Management
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The work of Melanie Green and Timothy Brook is fascinating; they have conducted extensive research on the topic of Transportation theory, one of the processes that is certainly taking place when listeners engage with FABA stories. Audio-based entertainment has the power to "transport" listeners into an altered state - the world of the story - which has exciting implications for learning.
CONTACT FOR PEOPLE FEATURED IN THIS STORY
Matteo Fabrini
Matteo Fabbrini is an innovative entrepreneur and visionary leader with proven expertise in the technology and marketing sector. After earning a degree in Marketing from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and significant experience in import in his family's company, Itagency, Matteo founded his first companies, Maikii, Reward, and Exclama, between 2007 and 2008 at the age of 26. Under his leadership, these companies have grown to over 80 employees and achieved a total turnover of over 300 million euros. Matteo also managed the opening of branches in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, San Francisco, and Paris, receiving numerous international awards.
Matteo is the CEO of FABA, a leading company in the edutainment sector, and continues to serve as CEO at Maikii, a European leader in promotional consumer electronics, and at Exclama, a boutique agency for corporate merchandising creation. Additionally, he is a board member of Foodracers, a leading Italian food delivery company, and Gamindo, a fast-growing company that develops branded web video games for companies.
ABOUT THE HOST OF THIS STORY
JONAS HALL
Jonas Hall an award winning documentary filmmaker and the former head of media at Lindhardt & Ringhof Publishing at Egmont Group and film and media consultant at the University College Copenhagen. He studied film and media at Aarhus University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Media usage disclaimer:
This video story is a non-profit educational effort; all media sampled and used conforms with fair use licensing (education). Several videos used are also in the public domain or licensed through Creative Commons attribution.
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