The ambivalences of digital disconnection for life coaches: Navigating discrete and performative disconnecting in the creator economy

Abstract

This study examines how life coaches navigate the tension between the authenticity of digital disconnection and the selective, strategic performance of that disconnection on Instagram, either through discrete (unpublicized) or performative (publicly framed) practices. Drawing on interviews with 15 Flemish-Belgian and Dutch life coaches and a qualitative analysis of their Instagram content, the study shows how disconnection emerges as an ongoing negotiation between well-being aspirations and platform-driven demands for visibility. Building on prior research that highlights how digital disconnection can function as a marker of digital awareness, responsibility, and authenticity, the study argues that disconnection is not only something life coaches do, but also something they must continuously manage within the creator economy: aligned with personal values and self-care, yet difficult to sustain when professional success depends on staying connected, visible, and responsive. By foregrounding tensions between what is made visible and what is kept invisible, our findings show how both discrete and performative disconnection operate as forms of visibility labor through which life coaches negotiate competing pressures, ranging from well-being and authenticity to the platform logics of ongoing presence and engagement. For life coaches, navigating this ambivalence exposes the broader challenges of living, and guiding others toward, a ‘digitally well-lived life’ in an age where even disconnection must be made visible.