Disconnect2Reconnect: Understanding Well-Being in an Increasingly Digital Society

Disconnect2Reconnect: Understanding Well-Being in an Increasingly Digital Society

Surrounded by the constant presence of digital technology, citizens of today are increasingly facing challenges in using digital media in a personally balanced way. How can people manage digital media use effectively with the continuous information flow over digital devices, where information is not only abundant but also complex? As ideas of controlled digital media use, such as ‘digital detoxes’, are increasingly being advertised in mainstream media and gaining public popularity, there is an urgent need for scholars to understand whether and how people’s management of their digital media use may enhance their well-being.

The EU-funded Disconnect2Reconnect project will develop a theory-driven model to study the mechanisms of digital media use, strategies of disconnecting from digital media, and consequences for well-being among digital media users. It will contribute to developing recommendations, tailored guidelines and educational interventions, and give insight into how digital media can be used in a way that enhances well-being.

The Disconnect2Reconnect project will use a multi-method approach and combine mobile experience sampling methods with panel surveys to examine the short-term and long-term relationships between people’s digital media uses, disconnection behaviors, and well-being. Given that effects of digital media use and content are often short-lived, the first study will draw on mobile experience sampling and digital trace data to understand how situational contexts shape the dynamics between digital media use, disconnection, on short-term well-being outcomes throughout the day. The second study entails a three-wave panel survey over the course of one year to investigate the long-term relationships between digital media use, digital disconnection, and well-being outcomes. In both studies, we will consider questions around digital inequality, and examine how digital skills shape people’s use of disconnection strategies, and how this relates to the benefits they derive from such disconnection.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement  “Disconnect2Reconnect” No. 891281.