Adjusting One’s Connection: Academic Researchers Grappling with their Email

This article considers the way in which academic researchers try to resist the norm of constant connection. By looking at the devices that equip this activity, particularly email, it shows that not all researchers perceive this tool negatively. It can nevertheless be said that in virtually all situations studied, email is problematic insofar as it raises questions, at best, and gives rise to an uncomfortable situation, at worst. The authors examine the constant tension between the control and sense of freedom reinforced by this tool, on the one hand, and the loss of control or even alienation which it seems to cause, on the other. In fact, users oscillate between two ways of managing their connection: equipped compartmentalization and controlled hyper-connection. The findings of this research provide foundations to reflect on the contemporary ways of fostering ties and the modulations of increasingly present and numerous connections.