Confinement, teleworking, video games … Should we worry about the time spent in front of our screens?

• Containment and the use of teleworking and videoconferencing have reinforced our use of screens.
• The question of the presence of digital technology will be at the heart of an online conference organized this Thursday by the Time Bureau of the city of Rennes.
• The researcher Séverine Erhel who will lead it believes that we tend “to alarm and stigmatize a lot” about digital.

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Working, having fun, laughing, shopping, discussing, hanging out, wasting time… The range of screens to occupy our lives is as wide as it is varied. The health crisis and its “teleworking and confinement” combo have only reinforced our dependence on digital technology. Should we worry about the time spent in front of the screens by young and old? The question will be asked this Thursday evening during
an online conference organized by the Time Office, service of the city of Rennes which deals with the delicate question of time. “I don’t really like the term screen. I prefer to talk about digital technologies, ”corrects Séverine Erhel, who will host the conference this Thursday.

Lecturer in cognitive psychology and ergonomics at Rennes 2 University, the researcher regrets that certain “experts” who have not come to create “a moral panic” especially among parents, worried about seeing their children crunch their screens. “We focus on connection time but it all depends on the content. It’s more complex than saying “You leave your kids in front of the screen too much”. Some studies have shown that children who watched educational and quality programs saw their language level improve ”. At the same time, non-educational content had had negative effects on the language level of other children. “This shows that there is indeed a relationship but that it must be qualified. Parental support can be a determining factor for having good quality digital uses, ”Séverine Erhel believes.

“Making zero screens is not a good thing either”

By organizing this meeting, the city of Rennes hopes above all to bring dialogue around the issue of the omnipresence of digital in this period of confinement where videoconferences have invaded some lives. “The community has the role of external watchdog. We should not be paternalistic, but there are new issues linked to the evolution of our lifestyles. It is necessary to take a step back, to think together and to inform our inhabitants. It is essential to share each other’s good practices, ”said Iris Bouchonnet, elected Communist responsible for the policy of the times.

But how to “live well” with digital? The question of “reasoned use” of screens is regularly asked of the Rennes 2 researcher. And the answer is not clear cut. “Some studies have shown that the ideal time is one to two hours a day and that social or emotional problems can appear when we exceed five hours a day”, Séverine Erhel concedes. Before specifying. “Making screen zero is not a good thing either. Digital uses such as video games are vectors of socialization. They provide topics for discussion ”.

“The digital will not transform a generation into mindless”

Beyond the youngest, all adults should also question their digital practice. How to understand that a parent suddenly turns off the console of his child while he jumps on his phone at the slightest notification? “We tend to alarm and stigmatize a lot. But digital technology is not going to turn a generation into mindless people. It all depends on our uses, ”says the researcher. It is also about the ability of humans to share their attention. Not everyone is equal in their concentration in the face of an outside stimuli, whether it is a Whatsapp message or a horn in the street. “ The important thing is to educate about the media and to explain how to guard against harmful uses. I do not want to see this alarmist message of decerebration spreading in our society ”, warns the academic. If you’ve made it to the end of this article, you can now turn off your screen. Or not.

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