Communications and Journalism

Technological resistance practices hold significant insights regarding the media’s role as much as its adoption and usage practices. Studies examining the non-use of communication technologies focused on various new media resistance, but barely on cellphone resisters – individuals voluntarily deciding to not own cellphones. Based on in-depth interviews with cellular-refusers, the study presents two refuser types differing in refusal dynamics: “ideologists,” whose rejection stems from a formulated, critical worldview towards the cellular in particular, and communication technologies in general; and “realizers”, whose "post-factum resistance" resulted from a forced but positive experience of a temporary break in use (e.g. when their device was broken or stolen), motivating them to disconnect in an attempt to preserve the new, liberated space they experienced. Additionally, the study deals with the psychological and sociological motives underlying cellular refusal, and with the refusers' resistance discourse, which focuses solely on the medium's nature and not its content.