Hi! I’m a reporter working on a piece about technology in the home. Wondering how smartphones and smart-devices have shaped daily rituals in France? How have they changed family dynamics?
Is anyone at a breaking point feeling tied to screens? And if so, what are creative ways to cut out or reduce tech?
I do not have one and Jim has an old one our daughter gave him.
We are retired and use our mobiles for emergency only.
We have desk tops, lap tops and tablets to work with.
Hi Emma and welcome to the Forum.
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It would also be nice to know which Journal (or whatever) you are working for… 
cheers
I’m happy to reply once I have found out which publication this is for.
Hi all! Thanks for the replies! I’m a journalist with Google, based in LA but covering Europe.
Hi Emma, can you state simply what your journalistic purpose is as a Google employee, so that those of us may be motivated to respond to your enquiry have an idea of how our responses are likely to support it? Otherwise, as you should understand, as a responsible professional, we are likely to be very careful about what, if anything, we are willing to disclose.
Look forward to hearing from you, Emma.
Sure! So Google recognizes that in many ways technology is working and making our lives better, but there’s also a sense that people are reaching a boiling point, feeling saturated and addicted to screens. They’re looking to take the temperature of people all over the world to see how they’re using devices, and if they’re using (or not using them) differently than they were in the past. Are people swapping out smartphones for old-school mobile ones? Trying to send more hand-written letters? Teaching their children morse code?
Let me know if this helps!
Yes, Emma, it does. I sense a genuine and well-motivated curiosity in how people are adapting to this technological revolution, which is happening at an unprecedented pace.
I am 80 so have a ‘respectable’ perspective on these changes. I have recently abandoned my laptop in favour of a Huawei mobile which satisfies all my needs which I relied on my laptop for. I only occasionally use email now, and have recently cancelled my Facebook subscription. I have never warmed to twitter, though did sign up initially. I was too self-disclosing on FB and it caused family discord, so I gave it up. I don’t regret doing so.
In the past I have used various online groups to discuss moral and religious affairs but these seem to have lost traction and have been wound up, had their day and lost appeal.
I like Survive France because there is an interesting medley of opinion and valuable experience, and it suits my purpose to belong, and I get an encouraging level of affirmation from other subscribers who seem to appreciate my input. There is a lot of well-informed and up-to-the-minute information that I find helpful to consume, and contribute to as well.
The technological advances of our era are almost too much to comprehend, but I am sure they are for the best, notwithstanding the potential risks to privacy and to misinformation, piracy, and cyber-warfare. But the genie is out of the bottle, and there can be no turning back the clock. My own time on earth is limited, but I trust the future generations to manage affairs in the common good, and I commend you to your work in that respect.