Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites

Ben Light puts forward an alternative way of thinking about how we engage with social networking sites, going beyond the emphasis upon connectivity that has been associated with research in the area to date. Analysing our engagements and disengagements with social networking sites in public (in cafes and at bus stops), at work (at desks, and photocopiers and whilst cleaning), in our personal lives (where we cull friends and gossip on backchannels) and as related to our health and wellbeing (where we restrict our updates), he emphasises the importance of disconnection instead of connection. The book, therefore, produces a theory of disconnective practice. This theory requires our attention to geographies of disconnection that include relations with a site, within a site, between sites and between sites and a physical world. Attention to disconnectors, as human and non-human is required, and the modes by which disconnection can occur can then be revealed. Light argues that diversity in the exercise of power is key to understanding disconnective practice where social networking sites are concerned, and he suggests that the ethics of disconnection may also require interrogation.

Ben Light is Professor of Digital Media Studies in the Creative Industries Faculty of the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His research is concerned with the ongoing work people put into digital media in their attempts to make it suitable for their diverse needs, on an everyday basis.

Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
Appropriating Social Networking Sites
1. The Connectivity Conundrum
2. PART I: THEORISING TECHNOLOGICAL APPROPRIATION
3. Acknowledging Mediators
PART II: PUBLIC DISCONNECTION
4. Shaping Publics
5. Navigating Work
PART III: PERSONAL DISCONNECTION
6. Personalising Use
7. Disclosing Health and Wellbeing
PART IV: CONCLUSIONS
8. Towards a Theory of Disconnective Practice
References