Entertainment · Books & Arts · 6 hrs ago
Southend exhibition examines social media pressures and ways to disconnect
Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea is showing an exhibition about constant online connection called *Compulsory Continuous Connectedness: Rest in a Networked World*.
It examines how social media and being online affect people and society.
The exhibition comes amid concern about social media’s effects on young people, with some countries banning young people from platforms and US states suing companies behind Facebook, Instagram and TikTok over harm to children.
The show was developed by artist and human rights technologist Caroline Sinders and psychiatrist Romy Gad el Rab, who works with the NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders.
It looks at both the pressures of social media and ways to disconnect, through photography, sculpture, textiles and other forms of art.
The exhibition also considers how online platforms can create visibility and community while shaping how people are seen and treated.
The exhibition is open until 9 January 2027, with one gallery focused on social media concerns and another on ways of disconnecting.
Compulsory Continuous Connectedness: Rest in a Networked World examines the effects of being constantly online and ways to disconnect.
The exhibition is at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea, England, and runs until 9 January 2027.
Curators Caroline Sinders and Romy Gad el Rab draw on experience in technology, human rights and mental health.
The exhibition brings together different art forms and considers both social media’s effects and ways to find respite from digital life.
- Who
- Focal Point Gallery is presenting the exhibition, curated by Caroline Sinders and Romy Gad el Rab.
- What
- Compulsory Continuous Connectedness: Rest in a Networked World explores constant online connection and ways to disconnect.
- When
- It runs until 9 January 2027.
- Where
- Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea, England.
- Why
- The exhibition considers how being constantly online affects society and what people can do to find peace.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Caroline Sinders and Romy Gad el Rab began collaborating.
Sinders and Gad el Rab explored social media, technology and mental health and met Focal Point Gallery curator Inês Costa.
The exhibition is on view at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea.
- Exhibition
- Compulsory Continuous Connectedness: Rest in a Networked World
- Venue
- Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, England
- On view until
- 9 January 2027
- Curators
- Caroline Sinders and Romy Gad el Rab
- Collaboration began
- 2019
What people are saying
I get to see the extreme cases, the 1% where continuous connectedness can have a devastating impact on people's lives and their families
What is interesting to me is the many different issues people feel now when it comes to technology, moving away from not only a feeling of addiction or compulsion, to reliance or even paranoia for some
My lab, Convocation, investigates how technology is built and how different types of technology facilitate violence through research mechanisms like digital forensics
Sources
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