Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites

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 PART I: APPROPRIATING SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES 1. The Connectivity Conundrum 2. 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

'This is an elegantly theorised and engagingly written work which gets to the heart of the question of disconnection. This text is essential reading for internet researchers, students and scholars of social and cultural aspects of new technologies, indeed anyone who has ever wondered about the significance of their choices to connect or to disconnect.' - Alison Adam, Professor of Science, Technology and Society, Sheffield Hallam University, UK 'This insightful book suggests an important corrective to current directions in SNS research. By emphasizing disconnection rather than connection, Light provides a careful look at people's use and non-use of online applications that includes but goes beyond questions of technological determinism and agency. I highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about issues of online communication, social change, or human connections and disconnections more generally.' - Lori Kendall, President of the Association for Internet Research and Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA 'Light has developed a highly convincing thesis of "disconnective practice" that is set to challenge the ways in which we currently think about our engagement with social network sites. This book will no doubt become essential reading for anyone interested in studying or teaching social network sites, social media and the internet more broadly.' Sian Lincoln, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Liverpool John Moores University, UK