In the mood for disconnection

Abstract

The needs and desires to disconnect, detox, and log out have been turned into commodities and found their expressions in detox camps, self-help books, and “offline” branded apparel. Disconnection studies have challenged the power of commodified disconnective practices to create real social change. In this article, we build on the notion of affective attunement to explore how disconnection commodities provide differential ways for individuals to respond to the challenges of connectivity, and how they can form larger patterns of resistance that cannot be dismissed as futile. We examine the ambiguity of disconnection commodities through three examples: a smartwatch kill switch and stealth mode features, detox floatation tank therapy, and make-up lines. Our approach turns the perspective from ends to the means of disconnection. We argue that these commodities do not offer hard breaks but they do let users attune to connectivity.

Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement: In Search of the Opt-Out Button

“…The social, political, economic, legal and cultural structures of compulsory digitality -from 'digital by default' policies to the social pressure to participate in online sociality -may only ever allow partial opt-outs. These can even stretch elastically into entire 'cultures of disconnectivity' and 'disconnection as lifestyle politics' (Kaun and Treré 2020); and develop whole markets of 'disconnective commodities' (Karppi et al 2021). But what about systemic exits?…”

“…Initiatives such as 'digital diets' and 'unplugging days' have mushroomed. Populist experts have warned about 'digital addiction' , to which businesses have responded with commercial packages offering 'digital detoxes' and other 'disconnection commodities' -from smartphone 'killswitches' to cosmetic products branded 'Unplugged' and 'Offline' (Karppi et al 2021).…”

Uneasy self-promotion and tactics of patience: Finnish MPs’ ambivalent feelings about personalised politics on social media

“…While humour and coolness can be considered useful tactics, they exemplify ‘technologies of patience’ (Berlant, 2011: 28) used for dealing with unpleasant feelings. While these tactics can create moments of disconnection, they can also make connectivity manageable and sustain connective capacities (Karppi et al, 2021: 1600). In the interviews, these tactics of patience were described, for instance, as learning to think ‘like, whatever, this is part of the job’, self-improvement by ‘teaching oneself some mindfulness’ or educating oneself about ‘having good resilience’.…”

“…In recent years, criticism of Twitter has increased, especially among top political journalists, who have started to question its exaggerated role in Finnish politics: only 13 per cent of Finns use Twitter, and far fewer of these users are active (Siren, 2020). Some journalists and academics have also publicly announced that they are leaving Twitter, but these naïve quests for liberation through disconnection often do not solve the underlying problems of over-connection but merely substitute one device with another (see also Karppi et al, 2021Karppi et al, : 1601. If and when the lure of the platform vanishes, it can be replaced with another, as has happened in the movement from Facebook to Instagram.…”

Algorithmic resistance as political disengagement

“…In this way, “the emancipatory potential of disconnection … is often deactivated and subsumed by the dynamics of digital capitalism under the innocuous facade of … authenticity, mindfulness, and nostalgia” (Natale and Treré, 2020; see also Kuntsman and Miyake, 2019; cf. Karppi et al, 2021).…”