Finding Digital Distance: Digital Detox and Conspicuous Disengagement

This research contributes to the sociological analysis of voluntary digital disconnection and the critique of the digital divide. It proposes a new paradigm of digital distance to capture the ways in which people seek to manage their use of digital media devices. These pragmatic DIY and often analogue techniques contrast with a very visible online trend of conspicuous disconnection. The attempts of individuals to create some distance from their devices and limit their consumption of online media also point to the valorization of voluntary digital disconnection while underlining the impracticality of digital disengagement for most people. The notion of digital distance signals a new framing of the digital divide. This is no longer premised on the have nots, unable, or in some cases unwilling to connect, but now those who are burdened with hyperconnectivity and feel increasingly coerced into being online more than they wish. The freedom and ability to disconnect appears to be increasingly presented as aspirational and normalized alongside a health and wellbeing discourse of affluence and class distinction.