It’s going to be chaos: The emergent connectivity of online experiences

Abstract

Online phenomena are frequently examined for how they connect humans socially through technology, with connectivity often considered as a state of being or doing that implies the mutually exclusive binary: connect or disconnect. This study of Airbnb Online Experiences, an online phenomenon that emerged during COVID-19 as a way for people to connect to the world through live interactive events facilitated by video calling, introduces new dynamics of (dis)connection as an emergent process rather than an established binary through the unexpected and ultimately uncontrollable nature of technological connectivity. Through an ethnographic examination of technological (dis)connective happenings that emerge within Airbnb Online Experiences, the study explores the ways in which these happenings are enfolded by a larger consideration of connectivity. Drawing on posthuman relational perspectives, the article proposes connectivity as an agential process, one which involves shifting entanglements of humans and nonhumans always transforming from within and unfolding in new ways.