Managing Social Media Use in an “Always-On” Society: Exploring Digital Wellbeing Strategies That People Use to Disconnect
Open accessAbstract
As digital media have become an integral part of many people’s everyday life, challenges also arise for people to cope with the constant connectivity and exposure to communication and information. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 adults, this study explores the strategies they use to disconnect from social media platforms and messaging apps, and how such disconnection relates to their sense of wellbeing. Participants employed strategies ranging from complete disconnection to nuanced ways to manage their connectivity (e.g., disconnecting from devices, social media platforms and apps, or from specific content and social connections). They also drew on features of technology to disconnect; however, such strategies were more common among those with greater digital skills. Finally, digital disconnection practices could benefit people in their everyday life activities and sense of wellbeing. By shedding light on people’s multifaceted and ever evolving relationship with digital media, this study informs future research on digital media use, digital disconnection, and wellbeing.
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Self-imposed time limits are often not respected by users.
“Similarly, multiple studies demonstrate that self-imposed time limits are often not respected by users (Kim et al., 2019; Nguyen, 2021).”
From Is life brighter when your phone is not? The efficacy of a grayscale smartphone intervention addressing digital well-being (2024) · cites this paper as Nguyen, 2021
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- Authors
- Nguyen, M. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Nguyen, Minh Hao
- ORCID
- Nguyen, Minh Hao
- Venue
- Mass Communication and Society
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-09-21
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 795-817
- ISSN
- 1520-5436 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7825
- OpenAlex
- W3201203166
- Semantic Scholar
- dde3b586a2402d6f8b138a69ce735f661d52c499
- Cited by
- 125
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 35 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 22.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.zora.uzh.ch
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Mass Communication & Society (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Web Use Project
- International Communication Association, Mobile Communication Interest Group
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Personal Information Management and User Behavior
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
- Keywords
- social media use, digital well-being, digital disconnection, always-on connectivity, messaging apps, digital skills, everyday life
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