Twitter: Voluntary Forms of Disconnection and Temporalities

Résumé 0

Professionals of visibility are tasked with making their clients as visible as possible on search engines and social media. Given the professional stakes linked to their presence on Twitter, particularly in terms of recognition of their expertise, e-reputation and employability, their forms of voluntary disconnection can only be partial, occasional, temporary or even concealed. Analysing these practices from the angle of the temporalities involved shows that, given the strong tensions between rigid timeframes, a time culture characterized by the “cult of urgency”, and the ability to achieve a work/life balance (preserving personal time), only the forms of disconnection identified allow individuals to guard against them and to reach the ideal of a flexible, changing and modifiable time environment. In view of this, three types of users are identified, according to their way of managing their work/life balance and the forms of voluntary disconnection they opt for.