Digital Detoxification: A Content Analysis of User Generated Videos Uploaded on YouTube by Facebook Quitters

GURPREET KOUR
Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad, India

Abstract

Social media has not only transformed an individual’s interaction pattern but has also integrated into wide range of interests and practices of online users. This social network facilitates self construction, identity performance and social integration on one hand while mediating fake relationships, unethical practices and invading privacy on the other. This study aims to understand why some Facebook users are quitting this online platform. Content analyses of YouTube videos of those who claim to be Facebook quitters have been analyzed to conceptualize emerging themes. This will be a study inclusive to interpretative paradigm to understand the reasons leading to this digital detoxification and enthusiastic non-Facebook experience. The present study extends this line of research to assess the range of identity claims that users tend to make for constructing online self-identity on Facebook and to investigate how it has affected the decision to quit. Implications and future research directions of digital detoxification by quitting Facebook are discussed.

Keywords: digital detoxification, content analysis, Facebook, self-disclosure

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Gurpreet Kour is a research scholar (Fellow Program in Management-Communications) at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA). Her research interests include destination branding, tourism marketing, travel advertising, and marketing semiotics.