The French and the Digital: The Lessons of the CREDOC Research Centre’s “Baromètre du numérique 2018”

Since 2000, CREDOC (the French Research Centre for “the Study and Observation of Living Conditions”) has carried out an annual survey on the use of digital technology in France. Given how advances in IT have accelerated and the rapid spread of that technology, this study is an excellent way of grasping how society is (or is not) taking up the new tools and applications in this area – and of teasing out its expectations and fears with regard to the spread of digital. In this article, André-Yves Portnoff outlines the main lessons of the Baromètre du numérique 2018 [Barometer of the Digital 2018], which confirms the powerful position the smartphone now occupies at the heart of French people’s digital lives. It throws light on their use of the Internet, the way they communicate with the outside world, the take-up of social networks etc., highlighting, along the way, the knock-on effects there might be in terms of the social bond and certain economic activities. We shall return to this subject in a future issue to consider how screens impact on the operation of our brains.