This article theorizes smartphone detoxing as a practice of sovereignty. The article begins by arguing that the smartphone enables the exercise of psychopolitical control, a new mode of neoliberal governmentality under which individuals are governed through the algorithmic modification of behavior. Against this background, smartphone detoxing can be seen as a practice of sovereignty in the sense that it aims to recover the subject's autonomy and rationality—qualities that are lost as humans become smartphone addicts. Ironically, however, smartphone detoxing is also a neoliberal practice in the sense that it plays on an ethos of self-care and cultivates market-oriented notions of freedom. As such, the article contends that the detoxing subject is a post-smartphone subject that performs political subjectivity by negotiating the tension between sovereignty and neoliberalism. To explore how smartphone detoxing performs political subjectivity in practice, the article analyses the testimonies of four influencers who share their detoxing journeys on YouTube. The analysis finds that detoxers recover sovereignty by rediscovering the Self, reconnecting with Others, and reclaiming time, and that they—through these very practices—also strive for the neoliberal virtues of wellness, authenticity and productivity.

中文翻译：

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“我翻转，故我在”：智能手机排毒作为主权实践


本文将智能手机排毒理论化为一种主权实践。文章首先指出，智能手机使心理政治控制的行使成为可能，这是新自由主义政府的一种新模式，在这种模式下，个人通过对行为的算法修改进行管理。在这种背景下，智能手机排毒可以被视为一种主权实践，因为它旨在恢复主体的自主性和理性——这些品质随着人类成为智能手机成瘾者而丧失。然而，具有讽刺意味的是，智能手机排毒也是一种新自由主义的做法，因为它利用了自我保健的精神，并培养了以市场为导向的自由观念。因此，文章认为，排毒主体是一个后智能手机主体，它通过协商主权和新自由主义之间的紧张关系来执行政治主体性。为了探讨智能手机排毒如何在实践中发挥政治主体性，本文分析了四位在 YouTube 上分享排毒之旅的影响者的证词。分析发现，排毒者通过重新发现自我、与他人重新联系和回收时间来恢复主权，并且他们——通过这些实践——也努力追求健康、真实和生产力等新自由主义美德。