The politics of digital disconnection: Agency, discourse, and materiality

Bozan, Veysel 2024. The politics of digital disconnection: Agency, discourse, and materiality. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Over the past two decades, there has been a significant rise in academic interest regarding voluntary disconnection from communication technologies, particularly in the Global North. This has brought forth new perspectives examining abstention from media technologies, challenging previous discussions on the digital divide, and emphasising voluntary disconnection. However, studies on disconnection have primarily concentrated on discourses surrounding disconnection and individuals' motivations and practices, leaving the materiality of disconnection and the intersection between digital disconnection and digital inequalities relatively understudied. This dissertation addresses this gap by critically examining the politics of digital disconnection, questioning agency, discourse, and materiality from an ontological and theoretical standpoint. It applies a critical discourse analysis within a Marxist materialist perspective, supplemented by 4 case studies. Firstly, it analyses commodification, instrumentalisation, and depoliticisation of disconnection regarding neoliberal capitalist dynamics in advice literature, consisting of 30 web articles (case 1) and in disconnective media, that is 5 hardware and software products (case 2). Secondly, it analyses the narratives of 24 entries and 800 comments on Reddit (case 3), focusing on how users interpret digital disconnection regarding personal choice, justification of actions, acknowledgement of privileges, and pursuit of authenticity. Thirdly, relying on 12 semi-structured interviews and self-ethnography (case 4), it investigates the intersection between digital disconnection and inequalities by examining the meanings of disconnection in digitally unequal communities and comparing them with previous disconnection studies. The findings challenge the notion of digital disconnection as solely an individual choice or a discursive construct, advocating for a more comprehensive understanding that encompasses material conditions. It reveals the discourses, objects of digital disconnection, and privileges and inequalities inherent in individual practices rooted in material circumstances. It contributes to digital media studies by offering fresh perspectives on the complex, often contradictory, and discursive-material nature of digital dis/connectivity in contemporary society.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 May 2024
Last Modified:	13 May 2024 16:12
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168880

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