Abstract
Digital disconnection or ‘digital detox’ has become a key reference point for media scholars interested in how media technology increasingly gains influence on our everyday lives. Digital disconnection from intrusive media is often intertwined with other types of human conduct, which is less highlighted. There is a potential for media scholars to engage with what seems to be a mainstreaming of digital disconnection from self-help literature via mobile applications to media activism and public debate. In this article, we therefore aim to examine digital disconnection beyond media studies by distilling five common positions: disconnection as health, concentration, existentiality, freedom and sustainability. An underlying theme in all five positions appears to be the notion of responsibilisation, although some of the positions attempt to portray disconnection as a way to ultimately resist such responsibilisation. The article thus aims to spur media scholars to treat digital disconnection as part of broader cultural trends.
Highlights
Media seep into new domains of everyday life and society
We argue that the attention to the intrusiveness of digital media, coupled with critical scrutiny of processes of responsibilisation, are important perspectives to bring to a discussion of digital disconnection beyond media studies
We present the approach of the discussion of positions on digital disconnection, before we lay out the five positions and their underlying assumptions
Summary
Media seep into new domains of everyday life and society. Media scholars have stuck different labels on this development. With this rise in attention to opting out, avoiding, detoxing or disengaging from digital media follows an overflow into different research fields including labour sociology, environmental studies, philosophy and psychology, and into general debates about the good life, societal problems and global challenges.
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