Technology Dualities and Paradoxes in Digital Well-Being: Analysis of Discourses of Digital Well-Being Market Offerings

As digital technology becomes increasingly omnipresent in virtually every aspect of market and social life, macromarketing's focus on consumer well-being is shifting to encompass the implications of hyper-digitalization in marketing and consumption. This study addresses the emergence of digital well-being as a stand-alone concept and as a market, reflecting the conceptual and practical need to find a balance between technology use and nonuse in consumers' pursuit of personal well-being in hyperdigital marketplaces. Given the dual nature of digital technology as both a potential threat for consumer well-being and a source of their empowerment, this research examines how digital well-being is articulated within market discourses through the lens of technology dualities and discusses broader implications of such duality for consumer quality of life. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis, the research reveals four modalities through which digital well-being market offerings position themselves between the (potentially) empowering and threatening aspects of technology. By offering a nuanced analysis of digital well-being's relationship with both consumer empowerment and vulnerabilities, this study enriches the critical debate on digital well-being in terms of technology dualities, consumer responsibilization, and the meaning of consumer well-being in the light of growing interconnection between consumer subjectivities and digital technologies.