Connect to disconnect: What an online community for digital disconnection can tell us about digital well-being

Abstract

Digital media profoundly shape modern life, offering benefits while also prompting concerns that lead many to seek disconnection. This study investigates r/NoSurf, a large online community paradoxically dedicated to digital disconnection. Through computational and qualitative analysis of discussions from over 26,000 active members, we study users’ complex and often ambivalent relationships with technology and their pursuit of digital well-being. The findings show that people see digital technology as both an escape and a source of distress. Motivated by desires to mitigate perceived negative impacts like distraction and diminished well-being, and faced with the difficulty of full withdrawal, members actively develop and share a sophisticated repertoire of strategies to manage their digital technology use. This research characterizes digital disconnection not as mere avoidance, but as a dynamic, skillful, and individually negotiated practice, or literacy, aimed at fostering well-being and intentionality in the face of pervasive connectivity.