Undesigning the Internet: An exploratory study of reducing everyday Internet connectivityShow others and affiliations
2018 (English)In: EPiC Series in Computing: ICT4S2018 / [ed] B. Penzenstadler, S. Easterbrook, C. Venters and S.I. Ahmed, Easy Chair , 2018, Vol. 52, p. 384-397Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Internet connectivity is seamlessly integrated into many of our everyday habits and activities. Despite this, previous research has highlighted that our rather excessive Internet use is not sustainable or even always socially beneficial. In this paper, we carried out an exploratory study on how Internet disconnection affects our everyday lives and whether such disconnection is even possible in today’s society. Through daily surveys, we captured what Internet use means for ten participants and how this varies when they are asked to disconnect by default, and re-connect only when their Internet use is deemed as necessary. From our study, we found that our participants could disconnect from the Internet for certain activities (particularly leisure focused), yet they developed adaptations in their lives to address the necessity of their Internet use. We elicit these adaptations into five themes that encompass how the participants did, or did not, use the Internet based on their necessities. Drawing on these five themes, we conclude with ways in which our study can inspire future research surrounding: Internet infrastructure limits; the promotion of slow values; Internet non-use; and the undesign of Internet services.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Easy Chair , 2018. Vol. 52, p. 384-397
Series
EPiC Series in Computing, ISSN 2398-7340 ; 52
Keywords [en]
Everyday life, Limits, Non-use, Reduced Internet connectivity, Slow values, Sustainability, Undesign, Surveys, Excessive Internet use, Exploratory studies, Internet connectivity, Internet use, Limit, Slow value, Leisure
National Category
Communication Systems Occupational Therapy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-264578DOI: 10.29007/s221Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85115613253OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-264578DiVA, id: diva2:1374362
Conference
5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability, ICT4S 2018, Toronto, Canada, May 14-18, 2018.
Projects
MID4S
Note
QC 20191204
2019-11-292019-11-292023-12-04Bibliographically approved