Authors of a new anthology aim to shift the debate on digitalisation. “Who has the possibility to disconnect is very important to scrutinise”, the editors stress.
The newly published book, The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection, delves into the theme of digital disconnection – a phenomenon that has emerged as people increasingly question their reliance on digital technologies. In a conversation with Mia Jonsson Lindell, communication officer at Nordicom, two of the editors discuss topics such as the paradoxes of logging off and shifting the debate about digitalisation towards a social, cultural, and political perspective.
Mia Jonsson Lindell (MJL): Can you start by telling me a little bit about the book? Why do you think it’s an interesting and timely topic?
Karin Fast (KF): The idea for this book came a couple of years back. We had already quite a big network of people that we knew were working on interesting projects related to the digital backlash and the theme of digital disconnection. It also became very timely when you look at current events taking place in Scandinavia and elsewhere, where we can see many different expressions of the things we explore in this anthology.
Trine Syvertsen (TS): Yes! The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection represents a new research field that we have been participants in constructing. In the book, we follow a historical development. In a sense, the digital backlash is a construction based on many different events, for example, the fact that people log off or go on disconnection holidays, and the critique of Facebook in connection with privacy scandals.
We can trace the historical development to the 2010s. Before that, the Internet was seen as a social media with a democratising force, and it had very strong positive cultural and social promise. Today, the cultural climate is more about the problems and less about the positive potential.
In search of authenticity
MJL: Very interesting!
Some of the chapters in your book discuss how a previous “tech optimism” is today complemented by critique and fatigue, with the ubiquity of smartphones and smart TVs, social media and Silicon Valley, for example. More people today, these chapters argue, seem to be fed up with “smart solutions” and technology – and in the book, this is referred to as a “techlash”. While “smart and fast” used to be what was valued, do you think authenticity and slowness are something that people look for more now?
KF: What’s important to keep in mind is that although we see this growing critique, it’s not as if the hype around the digital media is dead. We have the current situation now with AI being praised in a very celebratory way and how it’s going to revolutionise our whole society. But then parallel to that, we see this other trend of digital scepticism and the longing for something else, which Alessandro Gandini points out in his chapter, “Disconnection or hyperconnectivity? Remote work and the case of Italian south working”, for instance.
What actually happens when people log off? Who actually tries to log off? What do people do instead? It’s not actually about technology, but other values.
TS: The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection shows that those patterns of logging off are full of paradoxes. What actually happens when people log off? Who actually tries to log off? What do people do instead? It’s not actually about technology, but rather other values. In media studies, we have often argued that there isn’t that much difference between an online conversation and a face-to-face conversation, and in many ways, that’s true. But people often experience strong differences, and as media studies researchers, we have to recognise that these are strong values that people hold.
The disconnecting agent
MJL: While disconnecting is not – as we have previously discussed – easy, some nevertheless try to disconnect. One of the chapters in the book – I’m thinking of the chapter by Christoffer Bagger – analyses previous disconnection studies. Can you say something about what we know about the disconnecting “agent”? Who is it that chooses to disconnect?
KF: There are a few studies giving us some clue about who these disconnecting agents are. We can see that people – not very surprisingly perhaps – with higher cultural capital are often more inclined to want to disconnect than other groups. It’s not only qualitative studies indicating that, we also have quantitative surveys pointing in that direction. We should, however, recognise that disconnection is a continuum or a spectrum, and something that most of us do on a regular daily basis. It’s not like you’re either on or off – most of us move in and out of connectivity, all the time.
TS: Christopher Bagger’s point is that some people are studied more than others. We know, for instance, that the students and young adults in the West are studied more than other groups concerning connection and disconnection. The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection is about the different social roles that people take, and it moves disconnection studies further into the social, cultural, and political structure of society. Institutional and organisational settings have begun to be studied more, where people are viewed not just as individuals.
Shifting the debate
MJL: Let’s move on to my final question:
While researchers are often wary about discussing the future, at least in books and articles, I am nevertheless interested in your thoughts about the future. Now that widespread use of artificial intelligence seems to be around the corner (if not already here), what possibilities do you see, for instance, for organizations to disconnect? Is the Nordic welfare system already too digitally entangled for another way to be possible?
TS: With The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection we move the debate to a sociological, cultural, and political discussion about where we are as a society and as citizens. The book is a statement on how we go from here in terms of research on new technology. Many of the types of disconnection we’re talking about – logging off Facebook, for example – are in a way a smaller phenomenon.
What we specialise in is looking at this from a more social scientific point of view, observing the different norms that these kinds of narratives connect to and viewing it as part of something bigger in terms of a societal movement.
KF: I agree. I think that’s one of the values of our book – the plurality of voices that are in there. What we specialise in is looking at this from a more social scientific point of view, observing the different norms that these kinds of narratives connect to and viewing it as part of something bigger in terms of wider societal shifts.
In terms of the future, we just received new recommendations for screen time in Sweden. Not only did the national Public Health Agency in Sweden present new guidelines for how all of us should use digital media to get better sleep, but also age-specific recommendations for each age category. It’s on the political agenda now, on a higher level than it used to be, even when we started writing the book.
MJL: Thank you both for sharing your insights and for contributing to an important discussion!
Read the book
The Digital Backlash and the Paradoxes of Disconnection
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Written by: Victoria Tilly