Sources of digital wellbeing
We want to examine a few concepts or approaches that create a thought environment related to the topic. Before we look at any specific theories or methods, it is essential to acknowledge that companies' strategies have been fundamental to the topic - Apple and Google, with their tools in operating systems, have begun to thematise the issue. This seems paradoxical - they should want users to spend as much time as possible on digital devices. But - if they overdo it, the user may throw their smartphone in a corner and get a button phone or stop using a particular set of technologies altogether. So, both companies have started to focus on how to work with their customers' sustainability over a longer time scale.
Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology as one of the keys to building happiness as a specific life capacity to overcome obstacles, works with a model he calls PERMA, which we should apply to the whole context of our actions. Seligman is well aware that we do not always do only pleasant things, but the basic setup of our daily life should be based on these elements. The model has also gradually been carried over into the realm of digital well-being, where through its lens, we see how we should work with technology:
P = Positive emotions - using technology should bring us joy, positive emotions that we can share with others or describe to ourselves. If working with technology does not bring us any positive emotions (even after reflection over time), we should either change our work with technology or start working hard to change our approach.
E = Engagement - we do things well that we are drawn into if we can only half-work them; if they lead to distraction, superficial work or a feeling of having to focus on too many things, satisfaction will not be created in us, and the work will be ineffective. We need to set our technological environment to lead to engagement.
R = Relationships - has two essential aspects in digital technologies. Firstly, technology should not lead to a loss of physical contact. Everyone will read a message occasionally while talking to another; if you do it regularly, you have a problem. Technology should not be an escape from people. The second part relates to staying on social media or discussions and avoiding places of unnecessary arguments and bickering.
M = Meaning - describe what you do and why you do it. Ideally, for every project, every time we work with digital technologies, we should be able to explicitly tell ourselves what we are doing on them (try writing it down calmly) and what the purpose of our activity is at any given time and in the bigger picture. It is the sense of meaningful work that is key to long-term satisfaction.
A = Accomplishment - set goals and be happy when you achieve them. Those who don't know where they are going will go somewhere else. Many hardworking people who lack a goal do unnecessary things, which leads to exhaustion and frustration. Set goals for what you do, describe them and carefully analyse their accomplishments. Reward yourself.
Understood in this way, the PERMA model can be a simple starting point for feeling that we use technology in ways that are not in its power or pull. Using technology to be creative and find new and functional solutions is working in a particular perspective with a sense of joy, resilience, and well-being. Digital well-being is not a whim but a necessity.
Digital minimalism is a concept that seeks to focus on two critical aspects of working with technology. The first is considering the actual time we spend with technology. Generally speaking, most of us spend a lot of it this way. So digital minimalism tries to work by setting boundaries for activities that are not developmental and that keep us with digital devices often. Examples of recommended activities include:
- Remove your social networking apps.
- Answer emails once a day for an hour.
- Check social media only once every 4 hours.
- Don't work on vacation.
- Limit screen time in the evening.
- Get a classic alarm clock.
All of these activities are intended to lead us to give technology a place in our daily schedule that makes sense to us. At the same time, such measures can be expected to lead to greater efficiency and productivity in their use, which, according to the PERMA model, will translate into practical human satisfaction.
We want to mention another important aspect of digital minimalism about our topic - thinking about what tools we use for work and how. The goal of digital minimalism can thus be to use fewer tools in a truly efficient and comprehensive way. Perhaps more than going tool by tool, we should say what we want to do with technology and try to find the best tools according to this audit or assignment. That will do just that great and, at the same time, not include too many extra features. Digital minimalism seeks to eliminate redundant applications and services that take our attention. At the same time, we can see an emphasis on simple graphical interfaces, quality design and user-friendly controls.
It can also include concepts such as digital detox or dieting. These are deliberate blocks of time when we don't use technology or severely limit it; for example, we cut out Facebook or Instagram during Lent. In classical theological terms, this is how we gain freedom from something. This freedom can then be a source of time or energy that we devote to what makes sense to us. Similarly, a digital detox can be a vacation without internet access.
At this point, we want to reiterate that digital well-being aims not to eliminate technology but to feel good about how we work with it. Technology itself is not a bad thing for most people, and the society we live in is primarily built on it. It's similar to work - industriousness is usually reflected as a positive quality in a person, and workaholism is a disease that destroys health and social bonds and strips a person of their humanity.
The third concept, which builds on the two previous ones, is the concept of deep work. As with digital minimalism, its promoter is Cal Newport. He stresses that we need to build environments that allow us to focus in which we are not distracted.
One of the phenomena of today's world - FOMO (Fear of missing out), the fear of missing something, of not seeing something, of not being informed about something, is not just a problem in itself, leading to distraction and inattention, to a lack of focus, but a metaphor for what will happen to our digital environment if we don't systematically focus on improving it.
Cal Newport points out that actual thinking is only possible if we give it time. This corresponds well with the theories of Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), which emphasise that we do not focus on anything other than the activity itself. According to Newport, we must prepare the conditions for such work, which brings us back to digital minimalism. Or perhaps the most fundamental question of this part of the course - what is it that we want to do, what is it that we care about, what are our needs?
Don't distracting technologies, ubiquitous notifications, sounds, and messages from social networks only play the role of a kind of distraction, the absence of being with ourselves? Isn't the problem, not technology but the fact that we have lost the ability to be ourselves? Deep work is undoubtedly not Heidegger's question of being and its authenticity. Still, it can help us to experience the fusion of action and awareness, as Csikszentmihalyi says, and in this unity, try to experience ourselves through the activities we do consciously, meaningfully, in which we enjoy and develop, in which we are human.
We need to look for technologies that will support us in our deep work rather than deprive us of it. Have you tried FocusWriter for writing?
