hh.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Suddenly disconnected: the Facebook outage, the highly wired, and the affective ambiguities of digital life
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3070-4717
Halmstad University, School of Health and Welfare.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4697-5394
2022 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This paper explores how a social media breakdown is experienced in a highly wired context where social media practice has become mundane to the point of invisibility (Chun, 2016; Deuze, 2012). More specifically, it examines how a group of Swedish university students (n=191) responded to the major Facebook outage on the evening of October 4th 2021, when popular services such as Facebook, Instagram and Messenger stopped working for about six hours. Drawing on empirical data from an online survey conducted in the immediate aftermath of this unusual global event of involuntary disconnection, as well as on theory and research on historical blackouts, digital disconnection and digital wellbeing, the paper brings to light and discusses the affective ambiguities of contemporary digital life. For example, the most frequently used words for describing the experience of the outage were “nice” and “relaxing” but also “stressful” and “boring”. By exploring the emotions involved in the experience of being suddenly and collectively disconnected for hours, this paper makes a valuable contribution not only to previous studies on affect and technological failure where the focus is rather on individual responses to more temporary malfunctions (Paasonen, 2015). It also contributes to the growing field of digital disconnection studies by examining experiences of involuntary disconnection instead of practices of voluntary disconnection and abstention from digital media (Syvertsen, 2020; Syvertsen & Enli, 2020).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-47413OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-47413DiVA, id: diva2:1677203
Conference
ICA Preconference: Digital Disconnection Studies Beyond Borders: Cross-disciplinary, cross-media and cross-national perspectives, Paris, France, May 26, 2022
Available from: 2022-06-27 Created: 2022-06-27 Last updated: 2022-10-07Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Authority records

Danielsson, MartinAndersson, Linus

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Danielsson, MartinAndersson, Linus
By organisation
School of Health and Welfare
Media and Communications

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 162 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf