PROXIMUS : Over half of Belgians find it hard to say "I love you"... but text messaging and other social media can help them

An IPSOS study conducted at the request of Proximus in connection with a new campaign on 'easy' media, such as text messaging, Facebook and WhatsApp, reveals that the under 35s express their feelings to their family and friends more easily than their elders, mainly thanks to communication tools.

It's not always easy to express your feelings. No doubt helped by a greater uptake of messaging systems and social media, Millennials appear to fare better than their elders.

Saying 'I love you' or giving a compliment to a friend, brother, sister or parent, for example, is not done very often. According to an IPSOS study involving 500 Belgians aged between 18 and 65, 55% of them find it hard to say 'I love you'. 71% say it to their partner at least once a week and 60% say it to their children. But 61% never or almost never say it to their parents, 78% never or almost never say it to their brothers and/or sisters and 72% never or almost never say it to good friends. It should be noted that the under 35s are more generous in expressing their feelings: 83% of them claim to express their love for their partner and/or their children at least once a week. When it comes to a partner, parents or children, most respondents tend to express their feelings verbally (70%), but written messages (in particular via SMS, Facebook or WhatsApp) are growing in popularity for expressing feelings to brothers and sisters (51% verbally and 28% by written message), and even more so to friends (43% verbally and 36% by written message). Here too, Millennials distinguish themselves: 49% prefer to express their feelings to their friends via written messages. And they use emoticons twice as often as their elders.

Why is this study so important from Proximus' point of view?

By analyzing its customers' methods of communicating and noting how difficult it sometimes is to express one's feelings, Proximus has found that Belgians, whatever their age, look for alternatives to express their feelings: emoticons, irony, humor, etc. There are so many ways of protecting yourself, precisely when you are at your most open, transparent and vulnerable. Proximus' new radio-TV campaign was created on this premise. It starts tomorrow (Tuesday 18 April) and highlights how much closeness, love and expression of feelings there is in all these circuitous messages. For more than 20 years now, Proximus' goal has been to bring people closer together by breaking down the technological barriers that prevent us from communicating with our nearest and dearest. It is in part to help Belgians express their feelings more easily through modern communication tools that Proximus is constantly optimizing its network, even in the most remote corners of the country, and helping its customers as much as possible if they have a problem with their smartphone.

To discover the TV campaign:

'Le chinois ' / 'De chinees'

'Je vis encore' / 'Ik leef nog'

To discover the radio campaign:

Happy House FR / Happy House NL

Qualité FR / Kwaliteit NL

Smartphone de remplacement FR / Vervangsmartphone NL