Paper short abstract:

Digital Detoxing is a new way for individuals living in digitally saturated cultures to control and limit what they digitally consume. Based on an ethnography with the Camp Grounded community in Oakland, CA, this research investigates one example of the more widespread phenomenon of techno-anxiety.

Paper long abstract:

Today our lives are inextricably bound up with digital technology. The Bay Area, home of both Silicon Valley and Counterculture, continues to experience a clash of techno-utopianism and determinism. The resulting anxiety surrounding what constitutes appropriate quality and quantity of digital usage has led to Digital Detoxing, where protection strategies against over-use or 'digital diets' understand technology using a food parallel. Part of what I call 'Digital Healthism', Detoxing removes or limits what individuals feel is harming them, decisions which are informed by medical, moral and emotional experiences, emphasizing instead specific virtuous offline activities. By creating a community in response to their dissatisfaction with digitally mediated life, they construct norms surrounding digital behaviour which adhere to their values, especially where they feel digital practices have begun to stray. Meaning, connection and authenticity are positioned as virtues eroded by capitalist, addictive or lesser forms of digital communication. While the brief connection or 'snack' of a text message might temporarily satisfy, Detoxers feel that waiting for a more nutritious face-to-face meeting will ultimately be more nourishing. These attitudes tie into digital dualism, culturally constructed ideas of nature and technology, Governmentality and Healthism. How can individuals hope to reconcile their interwoven reliance on, and anxiety about their digital devices? Which protection strategies or 'diets' tend to recur and how can we use these manifestations of techno-anxiety to chart digital experiences? Does Detoxing point towards a future of users shaping and engaging with wider technological narratives?