The French say they miss holidays. Why do we find it so hard to disconnect? Even our free time becomes very occupied by a kind of digital tyranny, from which we must learn to free ourselves.
A study conducted by Expedia shows that more than 70% of French people feel that they do not have enough vacation time during the year. A little over four weeks on average, and this feeling has never been so strong for ten years. Analysis by sociologist Jean Viard.
franceinfo: What has changed in our relationship to holidays or to work for us to have this feeling of not being sufficiently rested?
John Viard: The great complexity of our society is that, with the digital world, we are increasingly stressed at work. We often have burnout problems because there is an intensification of the relationship between man and work, because with digital technology, we never stop, even in our free time. What is the limit between free time and telecommuting? It’s not very simple. When do you refuse to take a phone call? The borders have become obscured. So basically, the feeling of disconnection, the feeling of stopping, the art of stopping, there is a whole learning process of disconnection to be done: knowing how to turn off your phone, knowing how to walk away, knowing not to look his emails.
Today, we are closer to burnout than to physical fatigue. There are far fewer people who carry heavy loads – even if there are still some and we have to think about them – but this is becoming a minority. On the other hand, we are a society of continuous stress, a society where we do a lot of things on vacation: we continue to watch series, we travel, we move around, it’s not always really relaxing.
Has it really changed?
Yes I think. We live in hyperactive societies. This is true in work time, but it is also true in non-work time. If you want, we fight against boredom. Rest somewhere is a bit bored. It’s being in your deckchair with your eyes closed and thinking while floating, this ability there, which is often the moment of the most intensive reflection, we have lost it under the pressure of digital technology. There is a whole art of rest to be found. We see the development of yoga, walking, practices of disconnection (which are still extremely minority). And I think that there is a real reflection to be carried out on the holidays. We need a real disconnection, not necessarily a fortnight, just spending three days without a phone, without digital, without turning on the TV, even at home! We have become a society where free time has become totally occupied. We almost have the impression, when we finish our weekend, that we are more tired than when we started it. You have to learn to do nothing.
A society where, paradoxically, we increasingly want to have free time?
Yes, that’s why people don’t ask for vacation days but are constantly looking for a way to have a sense of rest. The French only leave on average two weeks a year, on vacation, and only 60% leave. So you always have to think about the 40% who don’t leave and the fact that you shouldn’t mix with the practices of social elites, especially in big cities among those who leave five or six times a year, often almost a week, and who have the art of building bridges with May 8, Ascension, etc. Barely a third of society operates at this rate. For the others, the holidays are spent a lot at home, in front of the TV, we must not forget that.