Intentional Non-Use of the Internet in a Digital World: A Textual Analysis of Disconnection Narratives

The intentional non-use of technology has become an increasingly popular practice, yet the scholarly literature on this topic is limited, being largely been framed as the lack of something rather than a phenomenon in itself. This paper reports on the analysis of over 300 disconnection narratives, the texts of which were analyzed by means of R software. Expected terms associated with phones and social media were identified, but descriptions of the assumed benefits of disconnecting, such as higher quality relationships, more productive work, and better sleep, were not found. However, overall sentiment was positive. This study will ground further research on a large scale, using big data sets drawn from social media platforms.