Visit " chrononymy " is the art of to give a name to each significant period in history..It's impossible to know what ours will be like one day baptized, but, by exploring the questionwe can see major trends communication dtoday.
Do you know Jean Fourastié? A renowned economist and prolific author, he has not only gone down in history for his in-depth analyses of economic cycles, but also and above all for having invented a formula. When, in 1979, he published "Les Trente Glorieuses" (The Thirty Glorious Years), he put a name to the thirty years of uninterrupted growth, industrialization, increased purchasing power and almost universal social upward mobility that followed the Liberation - referring, in a nod to history, to the "Three Glorious Years", the revolutionary days of 1830 (now forgotten even by those who crowd to the foot of the Colonne de Juillet, Place de la Bastille...).
And then, times changed. Radically. The last wisps of "May '68" and the "Hippies" dissipated in the "oil crisis", giving way to the thick atmosphere of the '80s with its trail of inflation and mass unemployment - brightened up, all the same, by "Ad Culture" and "Enfants de la télé". With the economy at half-mast and the consumerist dream coming to an end, some even referred to this period as the "Piteous Thirty".
How will the years we're living through today go down in history? Can we imagine what name will be given to them? It's a perilous exercise when carried out in real time... What's more, the names chosen by subsequent generations don't necessarily reflect the feelings of those who lived through the period. We know that "La Belle Epoque" was not a carefree time for everyone. Should we nevertheless attempt to describe an atmosphere, or should we tend instead towards a sort of code name, as has been done a lot since the turn of the century with the habit of designating each "era" by giving it initials - generations X, Y, Z?
If we have to look for the defining events of our time, there can be little doubt that the unexpected irruption of permanent digital communication will be one of them. The last century ended with a proliferation of media outlets: free radio, new broadcast formats, 24-hour news channels, new magazines, etc. In just a few years, the major media have had to share their near-monopoly with first social networks, then private messaging services. Today, over 2/3 of French people claim to be "informed" exclusively thanks to them!
With over 330 billion emails a day, over 120 billion WhatsApp messages and almost 18 billion SMS messages, we're creating our own distractions. How can we convert this screen time into real attention? That's the question brands, companies and politicians are asking themselves today. It's buzz time. What began as a marketing technique has, in just a few years, become the preferred method of communication of the age. Originally a mere rumor, buzz is now the noise we all make, our heads bent over our screens, as we type faster and faster...
A historical parallel is in order: a century ago, Americans chose to call their 20s the "roaring twenties", in reference to Twentieth Century Fox's famous lion. 100 years on, the roaring lion has given way to the bee who, snug on his sofa (or rather, in his... honeycomb), but permanently connected to others, participates in the permanent general buzz and maintains the buzz. Welcome, then, to the buzzing twenties!
In Les ingénieurs du chaos, Giulia da Empoli analyzes the workings of buzz in the political communication of our time. " In the world of Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Matteo Salvini, every day brings its gaffe, its polemic, its coup d'éclat. " To emerge in the midst of the permanent buzz, where one subject can chase another in a matter of minutes, you have to constantly surprise, make more and more noise and, like the bee, know how to... sting where it hurts!
If freedom of expression is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy, then we should be in Olympic shape, with access for all to expression on the networks! And yet, the disintermediation of the media has led to an exponential growth in fake news, giving new weapons to conspiracy theorists and political destabilizers alike.
In this context of unbridled communication, nuance sometimes seems anachronistic. The permanent clash that has become a favored mode of communication in the political sphere is generating new reflexes, including in the economic sphere. Even business leaders are increasingly seizing the microphone to create a buzz, and no longer hesitate to organize "battles" with their competitors via the media... Success is sometimes achieved, but at the cost of citizens' confidence in the word of their elites.
Let's be careful that the widespread suspicion that seems to mark our 20s doesn't turn the "buzzing twenties" into "bashing twenties"!
Christophe Reille
Florian Ridard
Thomas Thévenoud