Digital Exhaustion

A. R. E. Taylor

• 20 juli 2026
• 9781835952504

Samenvatting:

Daily life in digital culture is exhausting. This timely and urgent edited collection takes the theme of ‘digital exhaustion’ as a starting point for critical inquiry into the ever-expanding presence of digital technologies in our personal and professional lives. 37 b&w illus.

Unpacking the affective toll of constant connectivity, this book reframes digital exhaustion as a defining experience of our times.

Overflowing inboxes. Back-to-back Zoom meetings. Nonstop notifications. Daily life in digital culture can be exhausting. This timely and urgent edited collection introduces ‘digital exhaustion’ as a conceptual lens to critically examine the ever-expanding presence of digital technologies in our personal and professional lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, this book explores how digital exhaustion is experienced, felt, and articulated in our hyper-connected culture – through burnout, brain rot, binge-watching, data extraction, energy consumption, and social media compulsion. Digital exhaustion emerges as a key structure of feeling in an era of constant connectivity and algorithmic demands.

Accessible yet theoretically grounded, this collection is an essential resource for scholars in cultural and technology studies, while also speaking to broader debates in anthropology, psychology, digital geography, urban studies, and consumer research. Responsive to the urgent need to engage in sustained dialogue about digital futures, this book offers fresh insights into how we might understand – and rethink – digital wellbeing, social media addiction, and the growing demand for a right to disconnect.

A.R.E. Taylor is an anthropologist and senior lecturer in communications at the University of Exeter, UK. Linda Kopitz is a lecturer in cross-media culture at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and also works as a freelance creative director and writer in the arts and cultural sector. Yiğit Soncul is a senior lecturer in communications and media at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Alexandra Kviat is a lecturer in marketing and consumption at the University of Bristol Business School, UK.

Unpacking the affective toll of constant connectivity, this book reframes digital exhaustion as a defining experience of our times. Overflowing inboxes. Back-to-back Zoom meetings. Nonstop notifications. Daily life in digital culture can be exhausting. This timely and urgent edited collection introduces ‘digital exhaustion’ as a conceptual lens to critically examine the ever-expanding presence of digital technologies in our personal and professional lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, this book explores how digital exhaustion is experienced, felt, and articulated in our hyper-connected culture – through burnout, brain rot, binge-watching, data extraction, energy consumption, and social media compulsion. Digital exhaustion emerges as a key structure of feeling in an era of constant connectivity and algorithmic demands. Accessible yet theoretically grounded, this collection is an essential resource for scholars in cultural and technology studies, while also speaking to broader debates in anthropology, psychology, digital geography, urban studies, and consumer research. Responsive to the urgent need to engage in sustained dialogue about digital futures, this book offers fresh insights into how we might understand – and rethink – digital wellbeing, social media addiction, and the growing demand for a right to disconnect.