2023-07-16 05:00:07
CLARA DUPRÉ
The first time I decided to restrict my digital activity, I was 27 years old and I had just taken part in a “digital detox” in the German countryside, somewhat by chance. I still can’t imagine that in just a few months, I will partially achieve this goal.
I have never had a misuse of my phone. As a teenager, I used it for music, photography, video games or Facebook chats with friends. It’s when I set foot in the ecological community that my use changes and intensifies. In 2017, after an accumulation of bad experiences during my internships, I stopped my master’s degree in eco-design of plastics in Lyon and enrolled in Sup’écolidaire – a private school dedicated to ecological and solidarity transition. Over there, I anchor myself more and more in the associative fabric and get involved in a multitude of collectives and ecological and solidarity, feminist or civil disobedience associations.
Between 2020 and 2022, I am fully in these associations and it shows. As soon as I wake up, I check my notifications. I spend hours on my emails, my notes, my electronic diary. I respond to Facebook comments and messages from the many Telegram groups of which I am a member. It is through this network that the majority of associations communicate, it is also through this network that I get information. I don’t watch TV, so with Telegram I feel like I have my own local news.
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Without it being abusive, I still spend several hours a day on my laptop. And then, I vegetate in front of my screen. This is what happens to me in the summer of 2022. I stay in my village nestled in the Monts du Lyonnais and spend two months hanging out on a dating site. I scroll through profiles for hours. The worst is that no meeting materializes. I feel like this app “sucks my soul”.
“We rediscover sobriety and contact with nature”
My “digital detox”, in September 2022, is therefore timely, even if it’s a hell of a coincidence. A friend of mine participates, I also decide to try the experience.
The detox is organized by Yes to Sustainability [« oui au développement durable »], a network of young people that sets up sustainable development projects, and is supervised by two German women. One is a naturopath expert in medicinal plants, the other a “deceleration coach”. With them and twenty-five young Europeans under 30, we go for two weeks to an ecovillage not far from the Black Forest. There, no laptop, Wi-Fi or television. Together, we rediscover sobriety and contact with nature with walks or “forest baths”. There is also a whole section of« popular education », cis what interests me the most. Through debates, collaborative displays and other educational tools, we reflect together on the impact of digital technology on our lives and set future goals.
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