It's not the young people

Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the internet, has complained about the massive use of addictive algorithms on social media: he would ban social networks and phones for anyone under 16.

It's true that teenagers do nothing but look at their phones. But so do adults. Prohibition is sometimes the only way, but prohibition only makes the forbidden more attractive. Pornography, alcohol, tobacco... Of course, they aren't mature enough to indulge, but at eighteen, nothing will change. I always smile when I want to look up the reference for a wine I want in an online store. "Are you over eighteen?" they ask me at the entrance. "Yes," I confess. And then they let me in. There's no risk.

The internet and mobile phones, which we carry around like an appendage to our writing hand (the one we used to write with), which we can never lose because we lose everything, have many good things. It's wonderful to have online encyclopedias, yes, especially now that we hardly ever consult physical encyclopedias. But they have a very bad side. It's not addiction, dependence, or the memory loss that comes from not even knowing our child's or parent's phone number. The internet and mobile phones have created a generation of lazy and impatient people. Nothing can wait: the name of that actress we can't remember, the year of the Gulf War, which we no longer recall because it's no longer necessary to memorize it. Let's look it up, quickly. But we don't move from the sofa, stretched out with the device always in our hand, next to us, even while sleeping, keeping us company. On the train, in the bathroom. Who wants to go for a walk when there's a mobile phone? How sweet it is to spend hours and hours doing nothing with a mobile phone in your hand.