Disconnect to Reconnect: The Phenomenon of Digital Detox as a Reaction to Technology Overload

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand young adults’ practicalities of digital detoxing and the respective motivations to act upon these actions. Therefore, this research aims to create knowledge about what young adults do to actively detox from the digital technology and to understand their Motivations behind. Methodology This research took inspirations from an interpretivist ontology and the epistemological stance of social constructionism as it aimed to understand what customers do and what motivates them to actively reduce the use of digital technology from their own perspective. Inspiration was further taken from grounded theory analysis. This was approached through qualitative semi- structured interviews. Theoretical perspective As a foundation for the driving motivations, the research streams considered literature within the fields of negative impacts of digital technologies in the professional, the private and the social environment. Furthermore, a literature stream of measures to prevent and control technology addiction serves as a theoretical basis for the practiced actions. Empirical findings The empirical findings showed what young adults actively do to limit the interaction with digital technologies in the professional, the private and the social environment and what motivates them to do so. The findings revealed that young adults strive to not merely reduce the interaction, they also substitute and completely delete the use of digital technologies in some situations. The research uncovered that the lines between the three environments are blurring, therefore some Actions and some Motivations occur in more than one field, yet with differences in intensity and degree. Identified actions are Creating Barriers, Creating Structure in life, consciously Creating Awareness, implementation of Offline Activities as well as using Offline Media instead. Motivations to reduce the use of digital technology had been identified in Keeping Self-Control, Increasing Performance, Improving the Well-Being, Being in the Moment and Maintaining real life Relationships. Conclusions: The research results further revealed that the lines between the three areas of life are blurring, and actions as well as motivations cannot be fully assigned to one single area. However, in the private environment, young adults show more sophisticated and rather strict actions and motivations as in the professional or social life. Moreover, young adults consider the professional life as the online life, while the private life is associated with the possibility of being offline.