- While 2.6 billion humans are confined, the volume of messages exchanged on Facebook has more than doubled in a month.
- "The use, the meaning and the role of networks are changing at the moment," says semiologist and sociologist Laurence Allard.
- The race for likes and the competition for egos is over, or how has coronavirus and containment affected our links on social networks?
While more than 2.6 billion humans are confined, the use of social networks is exacerbated. "In many countries strongly affected by the virus, the volume of messages exchanged has more than doubled in a month," said Alex Schultz and Jay Parikh, the two vice president of Facebook, the world's largest social network with its 2, 5 billion users. In France, more than 90% of comments are focused on the Covid-19, according to the moderation company Netino, quoted by Les Echos . An unprecedented phenomenon since even the attacks of 2015 had monopolized only 60 to 70% of the conversations. The exchanges on WhatsApp and Messenger also doubled. Twitter has attracted some 12 million new Internet users in just three months. So how has coronavirus and containment affected our social media links?
"The use, the meaning and the role of networks are changing at the moment," says semiologist and sociologist Laurence Allard, lecturer in Communication Sciences IRCAV-Paris 3-Lille 3 and co-author of "Is it too late?" for the collapse? " "We observe all kinds of uses: discussions around treatments, masks, mutual aid, humorous exchanges, challenges and staging of its confinement," she continues.
"It's not the message, the main thing"
The situation is unprecedented. “The whole planet vibrates with the same feelings of anxiety, fear and morbidity. And there is a kind of equality before the disease, notes the semiologist again. The global Facebook network allows you to signal yourself as part of this humanity that is being affected as a whole. "
“The need to communicate is deeply human. It is not the message, the main thing, but the fact of continuing to have a social life. With one or more social networks, we reconstruct what we can no longer have on a daily basis. The offline and the “online” are intertwined ”, observes Valérie Jeanne-Perrier, professor in Information and Communication Sciences and Media Sociology at CELSA, co-author of Digital as writing (Armand Colin) under the direction of Emmanuel Souchier. For some, living alone or sick, social networks are currently the only way to be in contact with others.
"Shamelessness is no longer the problem"
Some, usually discreet on social networks, stage their intimacy like never before. “Indecency is no longer the problem. Humanity finds itself in its common character of vulnerability. It is not a matter of judging performance, ”says Laurence Allard.
It is a way of saying “I continue to exist, I am still a sender and a recipient. I am no longer simply confined to the space of the house, ”according to Valérie Jeanne-Perrier. "In this context of common humanity where we are all the same, we want to stand out, to express and stage how we remain an individual who will live in his own way a situation ultimately very homogenizing", confirms Laurence Allard.
The race for likes and the competition for ego is over, “each individual addresses himself to others, not to enhance himself, but to humbly seek a link or consolidate a link. These are fairly authentic and generous addresses that we are observing at the moment, ”underlines Laurence Allard.
"An introspection, or rather an" extrospection "online"
Faced with this health crisis, humanity is also looking for meaning. On Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, “many people wonder what they are doing with their lives. By exhibiting on social networks, everyone wonders what is the basis of their daily lives. It is an introspection, or rather an “extrospection” online ”, notes Valérie Jeanne-Perrier.
"The moment when we have the least to say, the total emptiness, generates an overflow of expressiveness," remarks Laurence Allard. Photographs of empty waiting rooms, empty places or even all these ordinary little moments of everyday life invade social networks. “We stage emptiness and boredom. This refers to a whole cinematographic genre that is the chamber film, ”analyzed the researcher.
And to continue: “Young people are the champions of the staging of nothing. Children and parents living together, there may be transfers of staging around TikTok, choreography, dance and music. "Everyone, with their prism, tells their daily life. The mundane is essential, it's a bit like Life, how to use Pérec, ”confirms Valérie Jeanne-Perrier.
"We are reinventing a temporal overcrowding at a distance"
“Rather than being zen or withdrawing, we reinvent a temporal overcrowding at a distance. Exceptional time in an empty space that we are trying to re-enchant, ”underlines Laurence Allard. During the first week of confinement, there were numerous exchanges of cultural goods, links to books, films, programs or podcasts. "Free access and pooling were the solution to overcoming this ordeal," she comments.
Work, drinks, concerts… Everything is now done via screens. "These are alternative uses," explains Laurence Allard. What changes is the range that we will use. All day long, you can go from one social network to another, from one application to another. Another way to fill the dead time, rare in our modern lives.
An overabundance of content that has led to indigestion for some, who have decided to leave social networks for the time of confinement. "They need to breathe in an anxiety-provoking climate," notes Valérie Jeanne-Perrier. Those who are in mourning or who have a sick loved one needed to get away from "this great mess that is social networks", continues Laurence Allard.
"Mutual aid is one of the positive functions of social networks"
Solidarity and mutual aid messages are also multiplying on all social networks. “This is something that we had already seen during the attacks with the #Open Doors, there, we find this spirit. Mutual aid is one of the positive functions of social networks. Weak links are being set up on social networks between people who do not know each other, but want to help each other, ”recalls Valérie Jeanne-Perrier. Will they become friends in real life so far? The future will tell. "This is about making a bond of humanity, of this common humanity in which we want to participate, like a big chain," rejoices Laurence Allard.
If fakes news proliferate just as much on social networks, see more than in normal times, we see a new form of solidarity appear, intense collective decryption. "There is a lot of debate on treatments and a desire to know," observes Valérie Jeanne-Perrier. "We flush out the fake news. It is a gesture of thoughtfulness towards others, because if we swallow everything that is said about vitamin C or quinine, we can die, ”summarizes Laurence Allard.
A “highlighter virus” of social inequalities
Meditation or yoga lessons, reading tips, activity planning for children, social networks “gentrify” and the coronavirus is a “highlighter virus” of social inequality.
"There is a divide between the confined and the outgoing by default," observes Laurence Allard. Mobiles and immobile have switched: "Those who go to the front are those who usually do not have the means to move. Usually, the immobile - those who do not leave by plane and do not go on vacation - are often the poorest, ”explains Laurence Allard. “Social relations are either very benevolent or hypertensive. There are no more intermediaries. We are also on an exacerbation of the link, ”she concludes.
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- Coronavirus
- Containment
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