Digital Disconnection of Australian Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic—Practices and Enablers

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the practices of Australian young adults disconnecting from social media during the COVID-19 pandemic for wellbeing purposes. Drawing on interview data about their experiences of social media use in the first year of the pandemic, we explored how they disconnect from social media and the enablers of their disconnection practices. The results reveal a spectrum of disconnection practices, ranging from overall device disconnection to specific app feature avoidance. These practices were enabled by their social media literacy and affective emotions generated from social media use. Based on these insights, we argue that support for youth digital wellbeing must not concentrate solely on educating young people to be effective and responsible users of social media. Instead, diverse forms of social and affective connections upon which their affective capacities rely should be considered with equal importance. Additionally, by considering these disconnection practices within their specific social and technological context, we critically engage with the notion of digital wellbeing as an individual capacity by underlining the structural inequalities embedded in people’s digital literacy and their capacities to act on their affective emotions.