Delphine Schiltz / Photo credit: STEPHANE MOUCHMOUCHE / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 19:29 pm, June 03, 2023

Less than one in two French people has written words on paper in the last 12 months, according to an Ifop study. It must be said that the keyboard has become the number 1 writing instrument, the pen only intervening for the supplement. Some practices - the sending of postcards in particular - are trying, as best they can, to resist.

The traditional tandem paper / pencil is obviously no longer popular. This is in any case what Ifop reveals through a study whose observation seems striking. Over the last 12 months, less than one in two French people has used paper to write.

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A phenomenon that particularly affects young people since only one in ten uses their pen more than their keyboard. "Everything is typed on the computer, especially the lessons. It's true that it's more convenient, it's faster, "says this student at the microphone of Europe 1. Some relics are still trying to resist the digital invader. Postcards, for example, even though less than one in two French people posted one last year. "Yes, I like to send some," admits one woman.

"It is still necessary to maintain it"

However, if the French write much less by hand than ten years ago, a quarter of them say they are attached to handwriting. "A note from someone who wrote by hand and signed, it's heartwarming. Sometimes there is nostalgia. You reread, you go back in time," says one of them. And the trend also concerns young people. "I had stopped writing for quite a long time and now I'm picking it up, I think it's nice. It's writing anyway! It is the passage from prehistory to history so it is still necessary to maintain it, "says this young woman.

An attachment to handwriting that a third of this ultra-digitized generation says they feel.