Constant disconnection : the weight of everyday digital life / Kenzie Burchell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burchell, Kenzie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Digital communications--Social aspects.

Digital communications.

Information technology--Social aspects.

Information technology.

Internet--Social aspects.

Internet.

Interpersonal communication.

Interpersonal relations.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"The weight of constant digital connection is the default condition of working life, home life, and everyday personal life - driving us to engage more with platforms than with people, a new state of constant disconnection that we cannot escape. Overflowing email inboxes, deluges of mobile phone notifications and torrents of social media posts--the flow of communication in its abundance is today's individualized interface for interpersonal and professional practices. Communication technologies and their use are both the needle and the thread of the wider social tapestry of everyday contemporary life. This ever-changing communication environment is where the neoliberal economic policies of the West and the commercial imperatives of the platform and data-mining industries meet. It is where the contradictions they produce can be felt day-to-day by citizens-turned-users. How does it feel to live at the pressure points of intersecting economic realities and why does it matter? Drawing on extensive sociological research, Burchell examines how individuals try to manage connection as participation in everyday life and how, on a larger scale, the ever-expanding knowledge, communication, and data-driven economies depend on the very pressures that result from our disparate communication needs. With so much time spent managing the pressures of our communication environment, we often overlook the way media technologies produce systemic tensions that are reshaping how we interact with each other and what we understand to be social connection today"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half-title

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface: There Are Real People Here

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Disconnected Sociality of Everyday Life

1. Economies of Communication Management

2. Managing Time

3. Managing Connection

4. Practicing Surveillance

5. Practicing Authenticity

6. Practicing Metacommunication

Conclusion. To Count and Be Counted

Notes

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781503639805

1503639800

OCLC:

1446131266