The rise of the masculinist movement, which advocates women being submissive to men, once again demonstrates the importance of properly educating our young people regarding the use of screens.
Because if these retrograde movements become so widespread, as evidenced by the documentary Alpha broadcast this week, the internet, social networks and the algorithms that create echo chambers have a lot of responsibility.
We observe the same phenomenon in politics, where extremists are taking up more and more space.
Amazing speed
In The engineers of chaos, published in 2019, Giuliano da Empoli explains very well why, with the effect of algorithms and echo chambers generated by social networks in particular, we are in the process of “rediscovering the way in which intolerant minorities can determine the course of the ‘history”.
We saw such a reality take hold during the Second World War, which led to unimaginable excesses. Except that in the age of the internet, it’s happening at an astonishing speed.
These are in fact extremists who, thanks to their sites, blogs, Facebook pages and others, ensure that they feed the electoral base of Trump, re-elected president of the United States, explains da Empoli.
Ideas that we thought were over in our modern societies are also starting to circulate again in this way.
Develop critical thinking
During the commission’s consultations on screens at the National Assembly in September, the Dre Emmanuelle Parent, general director and co-founder of the Center for Online Emotional Intelligence (CIEL), insisted on the importance of including young people in the reflection, of getting them to think about their use of screens.
This happens through parents and also through school, where young people must learn very quickly to develop their critical sense. We also need to better regulate social networks. This is why the decisions that the government will take, at the end of this commission, will be decisive on several fronts.
