"Away from the internet": an ethnography of digital disconnection practices and forms of (re)connection with digital devices

Digital technologies transform the world and, at the same time, gain new meanings from the social uses and realities in which they are inserted (MILLER et al., 2016). In this scenario, creative strategies to create breaks or reduce consumption reveal the search for conscious uses of these tools, which are now central to a widely connected reality. This research investigates, based on an ethnography (HINE, 2015), how users who have experienced practices of digital disconnection develop new ways of consuming technologies such as smartphones and digital platforms, and what meanings they attribute to these changes. The practices observed are organized into four categories: (a) work and productivity; (b) search for authenticity; (c) self-care and mental health; and (d) religion and spirituality. It is concluded that the processes of disconnection and reconnection engender inventive modes of technological engagement, new links with artifacts and mechanisms of self-management of digital use.