The Facebook Sabbatical as a Cycle: Describing the Gendered Experience of Young Adults as They Navigate Disconnection and Reconnection

Abstract

Young adults are known to adopt Facebook (FB) sabbaticals as a coping strategy for FB-induced technostress, which are often linked to problematic overuse habits. Yet, there has been little investigation of how young adults experience, navigate, and negotiate FB sabbaticals and the impact this has on their social connections and overall well-being. To address this, we conducted a qualitative study of six young adults, aged 18–34 to understand their FB sabbatical experiences, how they negotiated their social connections during their sabbatical and sough to explain the reasons associated with their return to FB. We propose a FB sabbatical support model and offer three research propositions. Our..