“Slowing down the stream”: A classification of users’ perceived digital sobriety orientations in online communities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66450/sim.v31i1.02Keywords:
Digital sobriety, Responsible IS uses, online communities, sustainability, Green IS, Responsible digitalAbstract
Digital sobriety is becoming a major issue in light of environmental imperatives, yet its implementation is particularly challenging on live-streaming digital platforms. Because these platforms operate in attention-based markets, their very design relies on strategies that run counter to those required by digital sobriety, such as lowering resolution or reducing viewing time. In this context, where platforms can hardly encourage digital sobriety, the adoption of more restrained practices depends largely on users’ own willingness to engage in them. However, individuals display varying levels of environmental concern. As a result, there is still a lack of empirically grounded classifications to understand how users adopt differentiated digital sobriety behaviors. To address this gap, we conducted a survey of 189 Twitch users and performed hierarchical clustering and k-means analyses. Our findings identify four profiles (“The Unconcerned,” “The Committed,” “The Improving,” and “The Paradoxical”), which differ according to specific configurations of environmental orientation, implementation feasibility, and social embeddedness. These configurations correspond to self-reported sobriety practices on the platform. Beyond identifying user profiles, the study provides a basis for designing awareness-raising actions and differentiated interventions, and shows that digital sobriety is a process of voluntarily reducing digital usage, shaped by community dynamics rather than being solely an individual choice.
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