Between digital and language

When I woke up this morning, my first instinct was to glance at my mobile phone to check for any email or social network notifications that had occurred since the previous day. I went through them quickly because I knew I would find them on my computer in my office, which is more comfortable for a man my age.

I then had a coffee, walked around the garden, had another coffee, and then, concerned about whether the weather was going to be conducive to cleaning my pond and fixing its pump, I pressed the blue circle on my smartphone screen and asked my personal assistant Cortana (cousin of Siri or Google Voice), "what's the weather going to be like today? ".

The weather was forecast to be good, so I instructed her, as she asked if there was anything else she could do for me, to call a friend. Not being very good at plumbing and water mechanics, I asked him for some information on how to repair the pump in the now famous pool. Human memory having its limits, my friend gave me all the explanations he could, and sent me back to the net for more information.

So I went back to my office, launched my browser and the page of a famous search engine (notably for its lack of respect for personal data) opened, offering me a blank field under the six multicoloured letters that make up its name.

I entered three words: pump, pond, repair, and a page with links to the first of 58,900 results appeared.

I confess that, given the magnitude of the task, I reserved the repair for later. Nevertheless, feeling guilty about not being immediately productive (a consequence of our times and our morals that enjoin us to perform constantly), I decided to get to work. I opened my word processor, started typing a few lines and then, because the keyboard resisted my fingers, I launched my voice dictation software and spoke the lines you are reading into the microphone. This slice of ordinary life is closely linked to 'the digital condition', to use the title of a book by Jean-François Fogel and Bruno Patino which I recommend you read (2013, La condition numérique, Grasset, 212 p.). Our personal, friendly and professional lives are woven together by these digital incursions and inlays. Receiving news, finding out about the weather, talking, searching for information, working... all these activities have undergone digital treatment in this account.