Digital Berghahn Books Anthropology of Media 14: Digital Flâneurs: An Ethnography of Scrolling, Screen Time, and Inequalities Among Youth in Vienna

This ethnography explores how young people in Vienna inhabit digital time and space amid boredom, unemployment, migration, school pressures and fragmented life trajectories. It reveals how digital devices are entangled with experiences of sociality, waiting, and boredom, offering an alternative to moralizing narratives of “mindless scrolling” and of strolling through digital worlds.

Using the overlooked and seemingly trivial digital practices of scrolling, swiping, and snapping as a vantage point, this ethnography explores how young people in Vienna inhabit digital time and space amid boredom, unemployment, migration, school pressures and fragmented life trajectories. By combining digital and design anthropology, it situates these mundane digital practices within historical continuities and broader societal regimes that value productivity and discipline while negating idleness and practices associated with marginalized populations. Through fieldwork, workshops, and co-design, it reveals how digital devices are entangled with experiences of sociality, waiting, and boredom, offering an alternative to moralizing narratives of “mindless scrolling” and of scrolling through digital worlds.