DISCONNECT moves beyond the state-of-the-art by contributing significantly to theory formation, through the development and publication of novel theoretical frameworks (e.g. the drug-demon-donut framework), innovative concepts (e.g. repressed agency), and reflective articles on the state of the field (e.g. mapping current research approaches to digital disconnection). Through its many theoretical contributions, DISCONNECT significantly advances the field of research on digital well-being and digital disconnection, and impacts the future development of the field.
DISCONNECT’s ethnography distinguishes itself from other qualitative research in the field via its intensive, longitudinal and in-depth approach. Similarly, DISCONNECT is unique in the use of an intensive longitudinal measurement burst design that involves smartphone and laptop log data from adult individuals. With the collected data from both the ethnography and the intensive longitudinal data, we can answer questions that have not been addressed before, thus unraveling how the use of these devices, considered both separately and combined, shapes dynamic digital well-being experiences, affects the health and well-being of individuals, and impacts our society.
The novel and sophisticated methodologies tools for data collection and analysis developed in DISCONNECT contribute to the ongoing paradigm shift in the field of media effects research where greater consideration goes out to dynamic, within-person trends. Moreover, these methodologies themselves, most notably the 'going-along' observation method, the multi-device logging approach, and the development of automatized generation of personalized reports for participants (to incentivize participation and achieve high data quality) have the potential to stand alone as best-practice approaches to this form of scientific inquiry.
Finally, DISCONNECT innovates by bringing multiple disciplines together, allowing for a far-reaching and trans-disciplinary triangulation. Through this approach, the project succeeds in crystallizing a set of core observations visible across the different work packages: That subjective digital well-being experiences are more predictive of outcomes than observable media behaviors, that these experiences are characterized by ambivalences, that they arise out of the interplay between individual, technological and contextual factors, and that they shape and are shaped by broader societal logics and narratives.
