According to a study by network provider NordVPN, the French spend an average of 56 hours per week on the internet.

A figure that has increased in particular because of the protean Covid-19 crisis and which raises many questions about the environmental impact of digital technology. 

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Two full days, plus eight hours.

In other words, no less than a third of the time of the week is devoted, for the French, to surfing the Internet, whether it is a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

This is the result of a study published recently by the network provider NordVPN, which has auscultated the online habits of inhabitants of different European countries.

This is an exponential increase, because we spent less than 16 hours per week on the internet two years ago, according to Mediamétrie.

A boom due in particular to the Covid-19 pandemic and confinements, but which reflects an increasingly large place in our lives.

"Pay attention to my carbon footprint"

Switch on your smartphone when you wake up to send a few messages on social networks or listen to music, surf the Internet without seeing the time passing by.

It has become the daily life of 18-year-old Jules.

“I spend about an average of an hour to an hour and a half on Instagram a day,” says the young man.

"When you add the time you spend in front of your computer, when you're in class, you inevitably end up sometimes, at 10 hours a day."

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Except that behind each of these clicks, there are servers that store digital data and consume energy, watching videos online on platforms like Netflix, for example, emits 300 megatons of CO2 in a year.

It is as much as a country as big as Spain.

"I am fully aware that this has a big impact on my carbon footprint and I still try to be careful," says Jules.

"There are times when I start videos on Netflix, kinda reflexively, and tell myself that in fact, I don't really need it and turn it off. If I want to see a movie and I already have it on DVD, I will rather release on DVD than on Netflix. "

Pollution greater than that of aviation

Each year, the share of digital technology in total CO2 emissions increases. "The digital industry emits greenhouse gases, at around 3.5%, which represents a significant part of the overall footprint since, by way of comparison, aviation outside the Covid period, it's 2%, ”says Laurie Marrauld, co-author of a report on this subject. This trend is difficult to slow down, especially since this pollution is not palpable for Internet users. Digital data is invisible, odorless. Complicated, therefore, to imagine all the collateral damage.