French connections : an anthropological study of the internet within a Parisian context

Abstract

The Internet has for a while had a rapid expansion worldwide and is one of the many globalization processes. My thesis focuses on interaction between the Internet and human beings. This interaction has faced various reactions on different levels whereas France has been one of the most prominent countries in its struggle for a social and cultural protection. One of the reasons for this has been a desire that its own system, Minitel, should win. However, this reason is not the only one. In this thesis I try to approach the Internet's role in France by pointing at some specific French discourses. I indicate certain particularities in French use of this new technology and how French culture, which has to a large extent been represented by intellectuals, is about to change towards a flatter social structure. On the basis of my fieldwork in Paris, I analyse some typical ways of using the Internet, mainly the chat, with a focus on national identity and language. Furthermore, I explore the Internet use in public arenas such as cybercafés. I compare some of these to certain traditional Parisian cafés. This is in order to get a further understanding of the role the cybercafés have in Paris. I maintain that after a long struggle against a technologization of the society among many French scholars, the battle seems to have faded a bit at least on the public arena. I argue that the focus today is more on the cultural aspects with the Internet, which represents American values. In this way the French cultural elite feels that their position is being threatened. My conclusion is that there is an alteration of the social structure in France, which opens up for a redefinition of the existing cultural capital in the French society where younger and other French take part. Furthermore, I maintain that the Internet is less accomplished in cultural hierarchical countries than in cultural egalitarian ones especially if English is being well spoken in the latter.