The law banning social networks for those under 15, which should come into force on September 1, 2026, raises the now unavoidable question of the place occupied by these platforms in our lives and in our relationships. If young people spent less time on social networks, would they be more inclined to listen to each other?
Because the problem goes far beyond digital platforms. It affects our way of relating. We live in a society where everyone is encouraged to give their opinion, to react quickly, to take a position. A society where disagreement often makes more noise than nuance, where clash attracts more attention than conversation.
The mode of confrontation
And at the same time, who really teaches us to listen to each other? To suspend our judgment, to welcome a point of view different from ours, to first seek to understand before responding?
This difficulty is found among young people, but it is the reflection of a much broader phenomenon. The results of our study carried out with OpinionWay in 2025 speak for themselves: almost four out of ten young people say they do not feel listened to. Seven out of ten say they experience, at least sometimes, the feeling of not being in their place. And when asked about the quality of dialogue in our country, 71% identify the lack of mutual listening as the main obstacle to peaceful exchanges between the French.
These figures say something about our times where disagreement seems more and more to be experienced in the mode of confrontation. The “clash” has become an ordinary form of conversation, whether it is expressed on social networks, on television sets or sometimes even during our family meals.
A skill in its own right
What if we also changed our definition of a good speaker? We often imagine that it is the one who speaks the loudest, who convinces the quickest or who wins support. However, the best speakers are certainly those who first listen to others, observe the world around them, and seek to understand a subject before wanting to comment on it.
It is this quality of listening that allows them to adapt their words, find the right words and, ultimately, touch their audience. Listening does not weaken speech; it gives it depth. Without this attention to others, everyday exchanges become tense, public debate becomes polarized and disagreements become confrontations. Speech then loses what it has most precious: its capacity to create a link.
However, listening is neither an innate talent nor a passive posture but is indeed a skill in its own right. It requires attention, empathy, curiosity and sometimes even courage. Like any skill, it must be learned, practiced and cultivated. Just like reading, writing or speaking.
A lever for equal opportunities
This is what we see every day on the ground, with the thousands of young people we support. When we offer them spaces where they can truly both express themselves and be heard, their relationship with others evolves. They gradually learn to better accept different points of view, gain confidence and enter into constructive dialogue more easily. Teachers also observe calmer relationships between students and a classroom climate that improves over time.
At a time when the mental health of young people is a concern, where social divisions are accentuated and where distrust is weakening democratic debate, this issue can no longer be considered secondary. Feeling listened to nourishes the feeling of belonging, strengthens self-confidence and develops the ability to live with others. A society that knows how to listen is also a society that knows how to resolve its conflicts more through words than through confrontation.
This is why perhaps it is time to consider listening as real learning. Better yet: as a lever for equal opportunities. Because it is often the same people who are listened to and the same people who never are. We have made reading, writing and, more recently, speaking fundamental learning. Why wouldn’t listening benefit from the same ambition? Training students capable of reading, writing, counting and arguing is essential. Training citizens capable of listening is just as important.
The ban on social networks for young people responds to an emergency. But it will not be enough, on its own, to repair what is missing in our collective life today. The challenge is not only to make less noise, it is to recreate the conditions for real listening and real social dialogue. Basically, for a word to count, it must meet an ear ready to welcome it.
About opinions
This text is signed by a guest author. He expresses his opinion and not that of the editorial staff. Our Live section aims to allow the expression of pluralism on religious, social and current affairs subjects, and to encourage dialogue, according to the criteria set by our editorial charter.
Share your opinion in comments or by writing to us at: readers.lacroix@groupebayard.com
