Digital detoxing, the attention economy, and the paradoxes of self-regulation
Professor Trine Syvertsen, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo
| A Research Services seminar | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8 March 2023 |
| Time | 13:00 to 14:00 |
| Place | Alexander Building TS1, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter Also available online via Teams. |
| Organizer | Dr Alexander Taylor, FHEA |
Event details
About this event
As digitalisation intensifies, many citizens find the constant attention to smartphones and digital platforms intrusive. While a ‘digital detox’ used to describe extended offline periods, users now find it difficult to take even a temporary break. This seminar discusses the role of digital disconnection in society and the lives of individuals. Why do users want to disconnect, what methods do they use, and how do digital detox activists try to resist the attention economy?
Like many contemporary movements, digital detox initiatives do not aim to achieve change through coordinated political action, but to offer tools, norms and spaces that can inspire adherents and influence public opinion. Still, it is interesting to discuss to what degree reactions against the attention economy relate to broader social issues such as platform regulation, datafication, responsibilisation, sustainability and slow movements.
In this presentation, Trine Syvertsen will share observations from the research project Intrusive media, ambivalent users and digital detox (Digitox). The project studies intrusive media from the perspectives of history, politics, business and users.
About the speaker
Trine Syvertsen, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo trine.syvertsen@media.uio.no
Trine Syvertsen is a professor of media studies, working in the fields of media policy, media history, media use, television, and digital media. She is co-author of The Media Welfare State: Nordic Media in the Digital Era (2014), and author of Media Resistance; Protest, Dislike, Abstention (2017) and Digital Detox: The Politics of Disconnecting (2020). She leads the project Intrusive Media, Ambivalent Users and Digital Detox (Digitox), funded by the Research Council of Norway (2019-2024).
Joining the event
To attend this event online via Teams, please use the link below:
To attend in person, the venue details are:
TS1, Alexander Building, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter
