Pascal Lardellier, of the University of Burgundy, believes that during confinement due to the coronavirus epidemic, social networks allow us all to keep in touch and therefore to be "alone together". According to him, this event will also mark a definitive entry into the “digital society”.
Are we witnessing the return to grace of social networks?
PASCAL LARDELLIER. Undeniably, and by necessity. Aside from sitting on the balcony, social media is our priority outside, with the phone. It is a consecration. Even those who use them sporadically convert. With this event, we will definitely enter the digital society, but a little by force.
How to interpret it?
There is a famous metaphor: it is the strength of weak ties. You meet people on the Internet who post moments of life, courses, tutorials ... It is first to circulate relationships before words and images. We all connect at the same time. We are alone together. This confinement produces a huge need for speech, due to stress. Social networks are providential to this.
Even Twitter, often vilified for its outbursts?
Given the urgency and the passions present, Twitter remains equal to itself: it is the agora for debate and controversy. Facebook favors the social link and Instagram the staging of its confinement and its episodes of life.
Is this a temporary or lasting phenomenon?
This confinement will have spent our lives on the digital reel. We will necessarily be less connected when we return to real life but we will keep track of all of this. Many will remember that it is thanks to new technologies that their relationships have held up in times of forced seclusion. These will be good memories of containment. It is the phrase of Flaubert: "It is not the pearls which make the necklace, it is the wire. The collar of the company in this period will also have held thanks to this Internet thread.
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Who are the forgotten?
Some stay on the side of the road because it is too expensive or too complicated. The digital divide will be accentuated. To be on a social network, you must already have a network that knows you. Some seniors do not have the codes, others will have taken a step.
