"Desconectar para reconectar": uma etnografia sobre o fenômeno do detox digital

Abstract

In a highly connected world, digital technologies and media are present in various aspects of daily life. Devices like smartphones and digital platforms now integrate areas such as work, leisure, and socialization with the aim of providing convenience and efficiency in activities. However, these same technologies are also blamed for episodes of stress, anxiety, and Burnout due to the increasing load of digital tasks. As a result, digital detox emerges as an attempt to disconnect in a largely connected world. The phenomenon involves activities and breaks in consumption aimed at curbing excessive use of digital technologies (SYVERTSEN, 2020). However, there are few theoretical contributions on digital refusal practices in the Brazilian context. Thus, this dissertation contributes to forming a panorama of studies on digital detox in Brazil. To this end, the research brings the following question: how do users who have undergone digital disconnection practices develop new ways of consuming technologies such as smartphones and digital platforms, and what are the purposes established in these new ways of use? This study aims to analyze the main reasons for practicing digital detox, as well as new consumption practices for smartphones and social networks. We chose to conduct an ethnography for the internet (HINE, 2015), keeping up with these participants from October 2020 to November 2023. Based on these observations, the research developed the notion of a disconnection spectrum: an analytical approach to understand digital disconnection practices adapted to Brazilian reality. The results of the analysis indicate that digital detox practices are motivated by three circumstances: work, leisure, and authenticity. However, the reasons for digital detox reveal overlaps, highlighting that the forms of disconnection are distinct and marked by individual experience. Furthermore, there is a tendency to pathologize the use of digital technologies, although the idea of addiction to social networks or smartphones is not very applicable to the participants studied. In the observed context, the interlocutors depend on digital infrastructure for their activities in various social areas. Even when they wish to disconnect, they struggle to fully detach, remaining connected to other platforms. Categorical disconnection is accessible only to the most privileged. Therefore, those who seek to disconnect end up finding alternative ways to consume digital technologies, seeking to create small breaks in the use of these devices.