- New apps, a new Whatsapp group, new weekly meeting habits with friends… During confinement, we had to reinvent ourselves to continue to maintain a social bond with the outside world.
- “The feeling of isolation has affected more people than before. It had to be compensated, ”explains Lise Bourdeau-Lepage, researcher at the CNRS.
- To keep in touch, some have been creative with new tools. But these new meetings could disappear with the deconfinement.
On March 17, France finds itself confined. Locked up at home, the French discover social isolation, which is all the more difficult to live when you live alone. But when we take stock, we see one thing: our social life has been reinvented. Online aperitifs, family groups, new rituals… A look back over seven very special weeks for our super-connected friendships.
“I have always been anti social media. But with confinement and a family spread over 180 km around, we have created a WhatsApp group in order to exchange daily, send each other video and photos and especially make video and celebrate our birthdays! Says Aude. "We had to fill this void and the feeling of isolation," confirms Lise Bourdeau-Lepage professor of geography at Lyon-3 Jean-Moulin University and HDR doctor in economics. "It was what I call the revenge of the family and friendly unit," she explains. "It has been found that confined people have preferred contact with friends or family": two thirds of those interviewed in his study maintained contact once or several times a day with their family.
One challenge per day, to "spice up" everyday life
"It's twice as much as before confinement. Conversely, daily contacts on social networks have decreased, ”she comments. "We have seen creations of family groups in which there was no communication before: what makes the link is the concern for others", confirms Laurence Allard, lecturer in Sciences Communication IRCAV-Paris 3-Lille 3.
To find themselves online, "some have shown great creativity, by diverting rather professional tools for uses of sociability, to continue living," continues Laurence Allard. Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp or Microsoft Teams were then used for drinks, but also for more original uses… Example with Natacha: “WhatsApp has illuminated my confinement. From the first day, I had the idea of launching “1 challenge a day” on several of my WhatsApp groups… and the delirium lasted 55 days! These daily challenges have spiced up the routine, ”says Natacha. "And on Sunday it was with a heavy heart and full of beautiful memories that we made our last," she continues.
Squats thousands of miles apart
Ditto for Bertrand, who had fun reproducing televised games with his group of friends: “Once a week, we took the big sport quiz. There was a presenter and for two hours we challenged each other on game remakes ( The golden family , The right price ...) around the themes of sport. It was rather funny and it made it possible to spend an evening laughing without thinking of anything else, ”comments Bertrand. Manon had the same idea with his school friends. "What is quite astonishing is that before we saw each other once a month, and finally, confinement, it brought us very much closer," she says.
During confinement, Zoom meetings also turned into… sports coaching. In a confined daily, these squats with friends are priceless, as Jean-Loup says, who reconnected with geographically distant friends during these training sessions: “We have strengthened our sporting side together. I think that during this confinement I talked more about sport and calories than confinement and coronavirus. And what a pleasure! "
When you are tired of training alone ... eusement fortunately there is FaceTime 🥰 with my partner in crime Camille 😈 pic.twitter.com/pntWZTfKxx
- Perrine Laffont (@LaffontPerrine) May 14, 2020"I tested again on Monday evening ... it was horrible"
But for some, these uses have been problematic. “In these online meetings, you can't talk at the same time. In a classic meeting, everyone can cut off the floor to the other, but there, it can no longer work, so we adapt their mode of communication. It's a big difference, ”she insists. “We can then be more attentive to the other. Conversely, we can all do something else during a teleconference, which weighs on the quality of presence, ”recalls Marie Claire Villeval, director of research at the CNRS.
"I was not as comfortable as if I were physically with my friends, but it was always better than nothing," admits Anne-Laure. “I did not manage to keep in touch at all through all of these tools. I tested again on Monday evening… it was horrible. After 15 minutes I told my friends that I was quitting, ”says Marion. "I can't follow the conversation, it tires me. I find that there are white people and that we don't really say things to each other. "So she adapted:" I who never dared to call, who am very WhatsApp I completely changed my habits, I picked up my phone, "she concludes.
Isolated and invisible people
And the frenzy of these communications did not affect everyone in the same way. Here too, inequalities have increased. "We must not forget that this crisis is also social," comments Lise Bourdeau-Lepage. “Accessibility to this virtual world is not allowed to everyone. It is a double penalty for these isolated people, who could not compensate in this way for their loss of social life, ”recalls Lise Bourdeau-Lepage. "We must realize that these new communication tools, Zoom, Skype, are the teleworking tools of the upper classes, whose uses have been diverted," adds Laurence Allard. It's very socially stratified. "
Whether one is connected or not, "this crisis shows that we really need links, if only via the telephone", continues Lise-Bourdeau-Lepage. Hence what these new rituals impose on the famous world after? Our experts doubt it. "They will probably disappear," says Marie Claire Villeval, "except in special cases where we are physically distant, but in the majority of cases we will resume our habits. "It may be used for people who are very far from us, but we always see that human nature loves human contact," concludes Lise Bourdeau-Lepage. Evidence that will hold ... until the next confinement?
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