Coping with crisis: The paradox of technology and consumer vulnerability

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the most severe disruptions in the global economy in modern history (Gössling et al., 2020). When challenged by this dramatic disruption and instability in our lives, an understanding of consumer vulnerability and the consumption-related repercussions of this pandemic merits further exploration (Kirk & Rifkin, 2020). Overall, past research has not sufficiently addressed vulnerability issues relating to technology consumption in the wake of a disaster. The discourse of technology consumption has often been framed from either utopian (focusing on the opportunities that technology presents) or dystopian perspectives (focusing on the negative consequences of technology consumption) (Zolfagharian & Yazdanparast, 2017). However, in reality, technology consumption may not always be represented by this binary opposition; that is, human-technology relations are more complex than this deterministic view (Katz & Rice, 2002). Prior research points to a paradoxical fascination and anxiety about technologies (Foehr & Germelmann, 2020). The term 'paradox' is defined as 'a situation, act, or behavior that seems to have contradictory or inconsistent qualities' (Jarvenpaa & Lang, 2005, p. 7), which suggests that 'polar opposite conditions can simultaneously exist' (Mick & Fournier, 1998, p. 124). We adopt the lens of paradox in our theoretical investigation following Mick and Fournier's (1998, p. 124) argument that paradox is 'a highly relevant and resonant concept for advancing knowledge of contemporary consumer behaviour'.We found three conceptual articles relevant to the central premise of our work. The first article by Sheth (2020) discusses how the pandemic has disrupted consumers' lives and how they have learned to cope and improvise new habits in the contexts of social spaces, co-working spaces, technology and natural disasters. While Kirk and

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