DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP
Digital Wellbeing
The use of digital technologies brings great benefits as well as negative impacts. Finding a healthy balance between connectivity and disconnection in a hyperconnected society, in other words, achieving digital wellbeing, seems to be one of the great challenges we face in today’s world.
Living in a hyperconnected world
In recent years, our work, social and leisure environments and practically all areas of our lives have been flooded with technologies and devices that allow us to be connected at all times, directly interfering with our activities and relationships. According to data from App Annie’s State of Mobile (2021) worldwide, on average, each person spends 4.8 hours per day using mobile apps in a trend that is increasing year after year.
Excessive use of technology
The use of technology has revolutionized the world and not only in terms of communication, but its excessive use has also brought problems associated with it that do not necessarily result in addiction. In that respect, excessive cell phone use interferes with social activities (McDaniel & Drouin, 2019), distracting from work and study (Duque & Montag, 2017), leading to procrastination (Schnauber-Stockmann, Meier, & Reinecke, 2018), causing sleep and health problems (Lanaj, Johnson, & Barnes, 2014), and inducing negative emotions such as emotional exhaustion and anxiety (Buchi, Festic, & Latzer, 2019). Therefore, it should come as no surprise that three in four young adults (Paul & Talbott, 2017), half of teens, and one in three parents find that they spend too much time on their screens (Jiang, 2018).
What can we do about this?
Find the balance: "Digital Wellbeing"
The use of cell phones and other technologies is already a part of our lives. It is not a question of not using them anymore, but of finding a healthy balance between their use and disconnection. Vanden Abeele (2020) points out that our relationship with technology has a subjective, dynamic and ambivalent nature. Therefore, the author proposes that digital wellbeing is an individual and subjective experience of optimal balance between the benefits and negative aspects of connectivity. This very subjective experience includes emotional and cognitive appraisals that mediate the integration of digital connectivity and daily life. As such, digital wellbeing is achieved when you make functional use of digital technology and experience maximum controlled pleasure, along with minimal loss of control and functional impairment.
