ABSTRACT
Media users increasingly express ambivalence about their own media consumption, often related to ubiquitous media technology such as the smartphone and social media. This has fostered public debates about the need to cut down on media use and more research on the topic has been requested. In order to understand the growing trend of disconnection as a cultural and social phenomenon and more than a sum of individual choices and self-help practices, we conducted an analysis of the digital detox-inspired camp for grownups Underleir, which has been arranged in Norway annually since 2014. The aim was to study what kind of norms and values that had motivated participants to take part in this temporary media hiatus. The main theoretical approach for this analysis is media domestication theory with special attention to the concept reverse domestication. In contrast to the domestication process where new media technology is “tamed,” reverse domestication implies cognitive processes and practical strategies involved when distancing from media technology. This chapter explores how a group of people try to reverse the place media technology has in their everyday life. This process engages with norms not only pertaining to media use, but reflects other needs, such as living a more sustainable life, developing “life skills,” and having a more authentic and playful social life.
