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Paper Short Abstract:

Even as offline-online distinctions blur from an analytical perspective, this dualism remains relevant, as evidenced by calls for 'digital detox'. Drawing on ethnographic research, this paper shows how imaginaries of disconnection structure fears and hopes and how these are enacted.

Paper Abstract:

Contemporary everyday life is characterised by ubiquitous digitisation as an inconspicuous backdrop to many socio-cultural practices. Cultural anthropology has repeatedly argued that online and offline are constantly intersecting and blurring, to the point where the distinction seems almost obsolete. In public discourse, however, the division between so-called 'real life' and a supposedly less authentic digital space is prevalent. In line with this dualistic divide, self-help books and newspaper articles describe a digital unease and call for a 'digital detox'.

This paper seeks to map and understand how socio-technical imaginaries of disconnection structure fears and hopes, and how these imaginaries are enacted in practice. Following Jasanoff (2015), I consider narratives of disconnection as socio-technical imaginaries that are collectively shared and enacted, morally structured, and future-oriented. The analysis draws on ethnographic material from my doctoral research, namely participant observation in Germany and Austria, interviews with young adult smartphone users, media diaries and discursive fragments in the form of media prints.

Disconnection imaginaries are structured around an inherent transactional logic. Practices of disconnection are supposed to get rid of the unwanted overflow - smartphone addiction, excessive overuse and information overload - and instead produce what I call 'offline dreams' - being present in the moment and finding a balanced way of dealing with digital media and communication technologies. In everyday life, these imaginaries materialise in the form of a smartphone box. Furthermore, disconnection practices enact new rhythms by allowing actors to switch between different states of connectedness.