The subreddit r/NoSurf is one of the largest online spaces devoted to discussing ambivalence towards excessive use of digital technologies and platforms. Here, the 156k community members share struggles and strategies in their quest to waste "less time mindlessly surfing the internet."

 This thesis sets out to examine the characteristics of the discourse on the r/NoSurf forum, and in what ways it can be understood as a conflict between dependency and resistance with regard to digital media and social networking services. By conducting a discourse analysis of a purposively selected sample of threads from the forum, several factors that make media an essential social tool are identified, and digital sociality emerges as a societal norm that is increasingly difficult to opt out of. In order to gain an understanding of the challenges community members face as they disconnect, the study examines media's importance through the lens of Media System Dependency theory and its updated version SNS Dependency, and explains the struggles as unfulfilled goals of play, orientation and understanding, as they are conceptualized within the theories.

The study further examines how engagement on the r/NoSurf forum can be explained in terms of ‘Disconnection-through-Engagement’ as proposed by Natale and Treré (2020); a critique of digital economic models through engagement with networked platforms. The three tactics conceptualized within the Disconnection-through-Engagement approach — hybridity, anonymity and hacking — are shown to correspond with strategies and activities promoted and deployed by the r/NoSurf community members. The sample further indicates that segments within the r/NoSurf community use the platform to find like-minded peers for discussions on undesired societal and digital developments, and for the exchange of tactics and strategies for resistance.