Disengagement from Internet Usage among Russian IT Professionals

Abstract

This article presents the results of an empirical study of disengagement among Russian IT professionals. Is it a paradox that some IT-professionals criticize digital technologies? Or is it a consequence of their expert knowledge regarding the internet? From February through May 2018, the authors conducted a series of interviews with Russian IT professionals who criticize different aspects of the contemporary internet and consciously limit their use of the internet and gadgets. The interviews revolved around the informants’ user and professional biographies, as well as the reasons for - and practices of - disengagement in their personal lives. In this article, we intend to show that the reasons for disengagement are deeply rooted in the socio-cultural and political context shared by our informants. We point out how their critique of the internet is not limited to technology and its impact on people’s lives. It often becomes a means of raising social and political problems, both on the global and local scale, which some IT professionals propose to alleviate through technological solutions. The study revealed that non-use amounts to a continuum of practices. Some informants never considered using social media and other popular internet services; others almost entirely disconnected from them over time. To some research participants, non-use entails a refusal to engage in particular internet practices common among their social milieu or the outright avoidance of certain platforms.