“My apartment has become a haven of peace”summarizes Christine, 28, digital project manager. “Since I have been working from home three days a week, I have rearranged my interior. I created an office area in the living room, invested in a computer and redecorated the bedroom, says this Parisian, in a couple, without children. I was already very into decoration, but the fact of being more often at home increased my desires tenfold. »
In the morning, Christine has her little routine. “I prepare myself as if I were going to the office, to put myself in working conditions, she says. At first, I stayed in my pajamas and was always tempted to do something else, which was not manageable in the long term, she acknowledges. Today, I am better organized and it is a real comfort to work at home. »
To get to her business, the young woman does not have much time to travel, but she is happy to stay in her “home”. She feels so good there that she no longer travels for “big races of the month”, do online. It has also replaced cinema outings with the viewing of series or films on video-on-demand platforms.. “I continue to go out, but for the cinema, I think twice about it”, she specifies.
On the other hand, she opens her door more to her friends. “I love to receive, and today I do it even more than before”, she rejoices.
A digital cocoon
Like many French people, the young woman takes advantage of the advantages of digital technology to reinvest in her home and devote more time to her private life, with the feeling of ” to handle better “, but also to save some money. Christine ended up creating a kind of “digital cocoon”, or “techno-cocoon”, according to the writer Alain Damasio’s term, in which she loves to nestle.
“The house, the most emotional word to designate housing, is by definition a protective place that shelters us from external aggressions. But the concept of digital cocoon seems antinomic to me, observes Pascal Dreyer, coordinator of the Housing Research network of Leroy Merlin France. On the contrary, new technologies are bringing the outside world into the home which, since the development of teleworking, has been invaded by new functions. »
Jérôme, however, has the impression that these tools preserve him somewhat from this outside world in which he says he is not always very comfortable. “I prefer telecommuting. I get on well with my colleagues but, as we don’t necessarily work on the same projects, we don’t communicate a lot, explains this 37-year-old computer developer. I find that it is often easier to send a message on the internal messaging system than to speak directly to the person who may be busy at the time, he adds. It is also via this kind of application that he “communicates a lot” with his friends, that he “don’t see very often”.
A desire to retreat?
He too has refurbished his apartment, located near Rennes, to adapt it to teleworking and make it more comfortable. He does his food shopping at the convenience store and orders ” the rest “ on line. “Going to the shops is often stressful for me”, he confides. On the other hand, he continues to go to the cinema. “It’s a different experience,” he said. But, apart from these outings, he prefers to stay at home.
There was a time when new technologies were, on the contrary, synonymous with openness, recalls sociologist Sophie Jehel. “The 2008 report on the cultural practices of the French showed that the more people used digital tools, the more they went out, because they had more connections and were better informed. » Should we then be concerned about this trend of withdrawal?
“The pandemic and confinement have obviously marked a turning point in digital uses, but we have also observed an attraction for green spacesshade Sophie Jehel. Things are always complex. Moreover, we must not forget that teleworking only concerns the privileged classes: 55% of managers, less than 20% of employees and 0% of workers, according to figures from INSEE. And then telework is not just happiness, there are also constraints, especially if the accommodation is small. »
An anthropological change
Still, with the development of digital uses, some of the French are hiding at home. An observation that frightens the novelist and philosopher Pascal Bruckner, author of Rite of the slippers (1). “French society is won over by troglodytism, the desire to curl up on the house and the apartment in a world deemed dangerous. Technological advances are accelerating this trend and making the sofa the new throne of contemporary man.he analyzes.
The author sees advantages in this: “A saving of time, money, the rediscovery of home and loved ones. » But if this trend were to be confirmed and become preponderant, “our whole relationship with the public sphere would be modifiedhe warns. A sedentary society screwed on their screen, threatened by overweight, terrified by the outside, would mark a real anthropological change. »
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Increasing digital uses
92% of the population aged 12 and over regularly connects to the Internet, according to the 2022 edition of the Digital Barometer. This concerns nearly 100% of young people but also 96% of 60-69 year olds and 63% of 70 year olds and over, with an increase of more than ten points over one year for these last two categories.
During the confinements linked to Covid-19,digital uses have intensified: 75% of people aged 18 and over have exchanged with their loved ones using these tools, 33% have teleworked, 26% have had a medical consultation online.
32 hours per week: this is the average time spent by the French in front of a screen: 17 hours to watch television, 8 hours to watch videos on the Internet and 6 hours for video games.
84% of Internet users make purchases on the Internet. These consumers represent 77% of the population. Among them, 13% make purchases once or twice a week, 36% monthly and 42% several times a year.