What exactly is digital wellbeing?
And is it something that would benefit you to think about?
Digital wellbeing is the impact that technology, device, media and our usage thereof have on our mental, physical, emotional and social wellbeing. It is about ensuring we are using technology and our devices as tools to enhance our lives, work and learning and not using them to our detriment.
Firstly, it is useful to be more aware of your digital behaviour and the context in which you use technology. Try a keep track of at least one or two contexts to get an idea of your usage.
Some activities to consider:
At work
- Email: number of emails in a day; frequency of checking; relative importance
- Slack/Google Hangouts/Work IM: When is it open? How do you react? How do you respond? What are the expectations of your workplace?
- Video meetings – how frequent are they? How much time in between do you have? Do you have other apps/tabs/phone open simultaneously?
At school/college/university
- Are your lessons/lectures/seminars online? If so, during the lecture or do you have other tabs/apps/devices open?
- For in-person learning sessions, do you use devices? Is your note-taking digital or paper?
- When you study, where are your devices and how do you interact with them?
Socially
- What is your device use like when you are with other people?
- What is your social media use?
– How much time do you spend on it?
– What is your connection with friends/relatives/acquaintances?
– What is your connection with others (influencers, general media)? - What about other media? How much time do you spend on news, podcasts, videos,
etc. ? - When you have small amounts of free time, how do you use it?
These are just a few activities that may be part of your digital wellbeing. In addition to tracking the activity, pause when you can and think about how you feel about that activity.
That’s it for now!
There is no point to make changes until you know what you are doing now and how it makes you feel.
This is one of a series of Digital Wellbeing articles we’ll be creating so please do look out for our next one coming soon!