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Digital disconnection

Digital disconnection studies investigate why citizens take breaks from media and digital tools. DIGITOX is a research project and a network of scholars studying the quest for attention in the media industry, the motives and strategies for digital disconnection, and societal implications.

Woman bicycling and looking at her mobile.

Photo: Colourbox

About the project

'Intrusive media, ambivalent users, digital detox' (Digitox) addresses current concerns about digital media overuse. While many studies emphasise the positive and enabling potentials of digital media, this project analyses ambivalence, resistance and attempts at withdrawal and disconnection.

Digitox draws on interdisciplinary perspectives and insights from media studies, game studies and psychology to investigate causes, implications and reactions to intensified digital media involvement. The project investigates the values and practices of digital detox, a concept describing temporary withdrawal from digital media or other means to restrict involvement.

Digitox' publications include books, articles and special issues, see below.

Collaboration, activities and networking

In collaboration with international partners, Digitox has established an academic network for disconnection studies. We organise seminars, conferences, cross-national research, and conference panels. Furthermore, we run mailing lists and have an active PhD network. Please check events and conferences for further details, or contact Trine Syvertsen if you want to join the mailing list.

Digitox aims to engage productively with public concerns and bring relevant knowledge to citizens, industry and society.

PhD and young scholar’s network

Within the Digitox project, we run an international network of PhD fellows and young scholars. We invite you to one-hour digital seminars twice per semester to discuss methodological and conceptual themes of interest within the broader field of disconnection studies. Send an email to kari.spjeldnaes@kristiania.no if you want to be on the mailing list for the network seminars.

Sub-projects

The project is organized in four work packages:

WP1: Norms and policies (Chair: Karin Fast)
WP2: Industry (Chair: Faltin Karlsen)
WP3: Users (Chair: Brita Ytre-Arne)
WP4: Theory and concepts (Chair: Trine Syvertsen)

Related projects

The project builds on a study funded by the Council for Applied Media Research (RAM) called “Når digitale medier invaderer livet” [“When digital media invades life”] for 2018-2019.

Digitox has a sister project in Portugal from 2021.

Financing

The Research Council of Norway (FRIPRO)

Duration

2019-2023

Cooperation

Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo

Department of Psychology, University of Oslo

Kristiania University CollegeDepartment of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen

Selected publications

Special issues

Special issue of Convergence Vol 27, issue 6. Special issue: Digital disconnection. Edited by Brita Ytre-Arne & Stine Lomborg. Table of contents here

Ytre-Arne, B and Lomborg, S (2021) Advancing digital disconnection research: Introduction to the special issue

Journal articles and book chapters

Faltin Karlsen (2023) The digital detox camp: practices and motivations for reverse domestication Chapter 24 in The Routledge Handbook of Media and Technology Domestication.

Gunn Enli and Karin Fast (2023) Political Solutions or user Responsibilization? How Politicians understand Problems Connected to Digital Overload. Convergence. Online first

Trine Syvertsen og Brita Ytre-Arne (2023) «Medierepertoar i forandring – da koronapandemien kom til Norge» i Norsk medietidsskrift.

Mehri S Agai (2022) Disconnectivity synced with identity cultivation: adolescent narratives of digital disconnection. Journal of Computer-Mediated Interaction.

Spjeldnæs, Kari and Karlsen, Faltin (2022) How digital devices transform literary reading: The impact of e-books, audiobooks and online life on reading habits, New Media and Society, online first https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221126168

Kari Spjeldnæs (2022) Platformization and Publishing: Changes in Literary Publishing. Publishing Research Quarterly.

Syvertsen, Trine (2022) Framing digital disconnection: Problem definitions, values, and actions among digital detox organisers Convergence, online first.

Syvertsen, Trine (2022) Offline tourism: digital and screen ambivalence in Norwegian mountain huts with no internet access Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. First published 12.5.22

Karlsen, Faltin (2021) Balancing Ethics, Art and Economics: A Qualitative Analysis of Game Designer Perspectives on Monetisation. Games and Culture. First published 8.12.21

Syvertsen, T., & Ytre-Arne, B. (2021). Privacy, energy, time and moments stolen: Social media experiences pushing towards disconnection. In A. Chia, A. Jorge, & T. Karppi (Eds.), Reckoning with Social Media: Disconnection in the Age of the Techlash. Lanham: Roman and Littlefield.

Fast, Karin. (2021). The disconnection turn: Three facets of disconnective work in post-digital capitalism. Convergence. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211033382 (Online first, August 14, 2021, part of the special issue)

Moe, Hallvard and Madsen, Ole Jacob (2021) Understanding digital disconnection beyond media studies.Convergence. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211048969. (part of the special issue).

Ytre-Arne, Brita & Moe, Hallvard (2021) Doomscrolling, Monitoring and Avoiding: News Use in COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown, Journalism Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2021.1952475

Karlsen, F., & Ytre-Arne, B. (2021). Intrusive media and knowledge work: how knowledge workers negotiate digital media norms in the pursuit of focused work. Information, Communication & Society, 1-16. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2021.1933561

Fast, Karin, Lindell, Johan & Jansson, André (2021) Disconnection as Distinction: A Bourdieusian Study of Where People Withdraw from Digital Media. In A. Jansson & P. C. Adams (Eds.), Disentangling: The Geographies of Digital Disconnection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Enli, Gunn & Syvertsen, Trine (2021). Disconnect to Reconnect! Self-help to Regain an Authentic Sense of Space through Digital Detoxing. In A. Jansson & P. C. Adams (Eds.), Disentangling: The Geographies of Digital Disconnection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Enli, Gunn (2021) Digitale forstyrrelser – et nytt politikkfelt eller individets problem? Nytt norsk tidsskrift 01-02,2021: 19-32.

Ytre-Arne, Brita; Syvertsen, Trine; Moe, Hallvard and Karlsen, Hallvard (2020) Temporal ambivalences in smartphone use: Conflicting flows, conflicting responsibilities. New Media & Society. 2020, Vol. 22(9) 1715–1732. Open access.

Syvertsen, Trine: Karlsen, Faltin & Bolling, Jørgen (2019) Digital detox på norsk. Norsk medietidsskrift (open access)

Syvertsen, Trine and Enli, Gunn (2019) Digital detox: Media resistance and the promise of authenticity, Convergence, Online first, May 2019. Printed in 26(5-6), 2020.

Syvertsen, Trine (2019) 'Loving and hating media', book chapter in Fritt från fältet, festschrift to Gøran Bolin, 2019, download open access here

Karlsen, Faltin and Syvertsen, Trine (2016) You Can’t Smell Roses Online: Intruding Media and Reverse Domestication (open access), Special issue Nordicom Review, selected conference publications.

Books

Brita Ytre-Arne Media Use in Digital Everyday Life (book, open access) Emerald 2023

Trine Syvertsen: Digital Detox: The Politics of Disconnecting Emerald, 2020.

Master thesis

Cathrine Ommundsen, Universitetet i Bergen (2020) Digital frakobling - En kvalitativ studie av smarttelefonbruk og mobilbegrensning

Elin Su Helnes, Universitetet i Oslo (2021) MEDIEVANER I «DISSE KORONATIDER». En studie av studenters forhold til egen mediebruk i koronapandemien

Sobia Munir, Universitetet i Oslo (2021) Digital Detox Apps: Self- Discipline or Negotiating screen time with smartphones using Digital Detox Apps in tertiary education spaces

Agata Agnieszka Cypriak Vel Czupryniak og Clementine Rusten, Arkitekt- og Designhøgskolen i Oslo (2021) Z Futures - The struggle of disconnecting in a hyperconnected world. The thesis can be found here

Ellen Prerovska Andersen, Universitetet i Oslo (2022) Paradokser og ambivalens: En masteroppgave om digitalisering og fleksibilitet i det norske arbeidslivet. Masteroppgave i organisasjon, ledelse og arbeid.