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Once upon a time, in a golden age before the internet, social media, and smartphones, there existed an analogue world where people lived slower, simpler, and healthier lives that were more authentic, natural, and meaningful. This is the analogue idyll: a compelling narrative within contemporary culture celebrating the virtues of analogue media and offline experiences.
Exploring the significance of the ‘analogue’ in our increasingly digital world, this timely contribution to studies about digital disconnection raises critical questions about the meaning of technology in our lives and societies, as public debates about the addictions, distractions, and harms of digital culture accelerate.
Chapters 1 and 6 are available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
‘Is the culture of connectivity giving rise to an age of technostalgia? This book provides you with illuminating analyses of how digitization leads to a new longing for disconnection and offline purity. A real eye-opener!’ José van Dijck, Utrecht University
‘This collection of accessibly written, nuanced chapters explores digital disconnection from various angles, bringing to life the complex relationships between online and offline worlds.’ Paul C. Adams, University of Texas at Austin
‘A wonderful journey across the analogue idyll landscape, this critical collection explores the various tensions and complexities of techno-societies engaging with – and changing – the world of digital disconnection.’ Esperanza Miyake, University of Strathclyde
‘In an age of digital abundance and technological saturation, analogue experiences are gaining renewed traction. This timely volume compellingly demonstrates how the concept of the analogue idyll can deepen our understanding of the post-digital world, including inequalities linked to individuals' varying dispositions and capacities to ‘disconnect’ from digital reality. Grounded in diverse cultural contexts, The Analogue Idyll provides an important critique of a historical shift whose implications we are only beginning to grasp.’ Karin Fast, Karlstad University
‘The Analogue Idyll astutely captures the urgency and allure of disconnection, illuminating how analogue imaginaries shape post-digital critique and practice.’ Emiliano Treré, University of Santiago de Compostela
‘In our hyper- connected world, where digital communication is simultaneously celebrated and despised, abundant and overwhelming, the analogue has emerged as a site of cultural and affective investment. This is what the contributors to this exciting collection call “the analogue idyll” – a rising enthusiasm for non-digital practices, representations and imaginaries. Using the parallel with “the rural idyl” – a romanticised idea of peaceful life in the countryside – the book investigates the analogue as an object, a context, a commodity and a mindset, offering an insightful new perspective on both the digital overwhelm and the politics of disconnection.’ Adi Kuntsman, Manchester Metropolitan University
‘This volume is a timely investigation into the current celebration of digital refusal, and a provocation: analogue experiences once thought lost to the digital age — such as listening to vinyl or hiking the Appalachian Trail — are not mere nostalgia, but signs of a post-digital era to come.’ Tero Karppi, University of Toronto
‘Destined to become a touchstone in the field, this is an exciting collection which draws together innovative critical research on the social practices of challenging the ever pervasive digital.’ Marcus Leaning, University of Winchester
Foreword by Trine Syvertsen
1. The Analogue Idyll: A New Myth for the Post-Digital Age?
A.R.E. Taylor
2. Analogue Labour: The Mass Craft and Post-Digital Logistics of Making and Selling Vinyl Records
Michael Palm
3. ‘We Don’t Have Wi-Fi, Talk to Each Other’: Digital Disconnection in the Hospitality Industry
Alexandra Kviat
4. Digital Representations on the Appalachian Trail: Wilderness as a Post-Digital Experience
Dave McLaughlin
5. Finding Digital Distance: Digital Detox and Conspicuous Disengagement
Paul O’Connor
6. Analogue Celebrity: Digital Refusal Among the Rich and Famous
A.R.E. Taylor and Neil Ewen
7. Selling the Promise of Presence: How Companies Promote Digital Detox ‘Products’ in Denmark
Malene Hornstrup Jespersen, Annika Isfeldt, and Kristoffer Albris
8. ‘I Meditate Because My Mind Has Numerous Tabs Open’: Dis/connecting (in) Mindfulness Apps
Linda Kopitz