Online or Offline? -The conflict between reason and emotion : An ethnographically-inspired study of four student’s everyday lives online and offline

Purpose: The aim of this thesis has been to study and obtain greater understanding of the consequences of active social media use. Specifically, in terms of social identity, social life and the sense of belonging. Secondly, the thesis studies the consequences of disconnecting and for a limited amount of time opt out of the social media context. Method/material: The study is based on an explorative, cultural ethnographically-inspired method, in which four respondents were studied: two men and two women, all frequent users of social media. This was done in three steps: initial interviews, followed by social media diaries and finally a focus group. By allowing these methods to complement each other, the goal was to create an overall picture of the importance of social media in their everyday lives. The study's focus lies on the week in which the respondents kept social media diaries. This was done with an application designed to continuously provide me updates during the week. The first three days of the week, the respondents used the social media as usual. Every time they were active on social media, the task was to update the diary with the activity, as well as motivation, emotion, simultaneous offline activity and possible reflections. The last four days of the weak, the respondents were prohibited from using social media, and instead they updated the diaries every time they had an impulse to use social media. Main results: The study shows that social media plays a big role in shaping the self as well as the social identity. The respondents feel a social requirement to be constantly available, which stresses them and affects offline-activities and how they socialize in real life. The days without social media meant great relief in many ways; they began to read books, socialized more concentrated with friends and family and were able to relax more. Despite these surprising insights, they want to continue using social media since being disconnected was also very stressful since they often had the feeling of being excluded and left out. The conflict between reason and emotion arises. Sense dictates that they should cut down on their social media activity but the feeling tells them the opposite