Intensification, discovery and abandonment: Unearthing global ecologies of dis/connection in pandemic times

Abstract

This article explores how people have reconfigured their dis/connective repertoires during COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns. Relying on a media ecology approach and on 45 interviews carried out in different parts of the world, it tackles two limitations of the digital disconnection literature, namely social media reductionism and universalism, advancing a theoretical and empirical contribution. Firstly, it explores and unfolds dis/connective practices in relation to an intricate multiplicity of old and new practices, technologies, platforms and formats, foregrounding three key dynamics in the reconfiguration of dis/connective repertoires: intensification, (re)discovery and abandonment. Then, it critically drills down into the uneven power relations, divides and inequalities that traverse these three dynamics. This article demonstrates that dis/connective practices are carried out across variable configurations of devices, formats and platforms and shaped by privileges and imbalances that are particularly severe in the context of the Global South. In doing so, this article complexifies taken-for-granted assumptions regarding the meanings of dis/connection, establishing a dialogue with digital inequality and labour studies, hence unfolding new horizons of inquiry for digital disconnection studies.

Digital well-being in an age of mobile connectivity: An introduction to the Special Issue

“…Understanding the potential harms of mobile connectivity as such social constructions resonates with the third article in this Special Issue, by Valasek (2022), who presents a critical, socio-cultural analysis of digital (un)wellness. This analysis illustrates how contemporary conceptions of what is normal—and therefore desirable—in terms of our relationship with digital technologies such as smartphones is heavily influenced by behaviorist thinking.…”

“…Digital well-being interventions such as digital detox apps, then, are legitimized as they become necessary tools that make up or compensate for our human deficiencies. However, Valasek (2022) argues, such a behaviorist, medicalized perspective on digital well-being can obscure its political dimensions, among others by obfuscating differences between (supposedly) “innate” deficiencies to control one’s media use and persisting social and economic inequalities that explain losses of control, thereby reproducing the latter. As such, the author invites scholars to think beyond the mere idea of self-regulation as a solution to digital unwellness, and to consider the everyday structural purposes of technology that may act as social stratifiers and shape experiences of digital well-being.…”

“…It is likely that digital well-being has different connotations for different people of various backgrounds. As Valasek (2022) notes, we should be mindful of how digital well-being is constructed for those who are at a structural social and economic disadvantage. Second, how can people then attain digital well-being?…”

“…Second, how can people then attain digital well-being? While current literature often thinks of self-regulated disconnection as a remedy to the consequences of excessive and uncontrolled mobile media use, for socioeconomically and digitally disadvantaged populations other interventions may be more important for attaining digital well-being (Karsay & Vandenbosch, 2021; Valasek, 2022). Relatedly, motivated by digital inequality scholarship, research could focus on the digital skills that become ever more important to navigate and manage the increasingly complex digital information environment, and that can help prevent perceptions of overuse and overload (Gui et al, 2017; Hargittai & Micheli, 2019; Nguyen, 2021), thereby fostering digital well-being.…”

“…In the systematic review by Radtke et al (2022) on digital detoxing, for instance, only 2 out of 21 studies, namely from South-Korea and the United Arab Emirates, were conducted outside Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Recent research suggests, however, that experiences of digital well-being and disconnection are vastly different in socio-cultural and socio-technical contexts where people have less stable access to digital media and the Internet (Treré, 2021), and thus more research from alternative contexts is warranted.…”