Distraction and Boredom: Students Faced to Digital Economy

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the meaning of the emotional experiences students are faced with when giving attention (Beck & Davenport, 2001) to techniques developed by the major players in the digital economy and its consequences on their future professional life. Our goal is to show, from a qualitative study, that the emotional dependence of the youth on digital technology generates a multi-active source of scatter and thus boredom. Only those who have mastered the time spent on these tools are satisfied. The students who are not bored have the ability to manage their time and productivity via digital resources. These results are the outcome of a study conducted over a two years period that investigates the new emotional spirit of capitalism, continuing the work of Boltanski and Chiapello (1999). It questions the emotional experience of students when faced with the dynamic of the economy’s marketing techniques and its effect on attention (Illouz, 2006; Martin-Juchat, 2008, 2014).