So, what’s digital wellbeing all about?
Digital wellbeing is about striking the right balance between your online and offline life, making sure that the time you spend on screens enhances your health and happiness and doesn’t overshadow the uniquely real-world experiences that make life meaningful. You can think of it as being mindful of your digital consumption (what you do on screens) to stay mentally and emotionally healthy and happy.
It’s important to be mindful of your digital use because of the particular way the digital world is designed. It’s an incredible place; entertainment, education, connection with friends – all at your fingertips. But so much of the internet is one big advertising machine. It’s deliberately designed to keep us online for as long as possible, with the hope of selling something to us as we scroll.
That makes it very hard for everyone, adults and teens alike, to log off, put their screens down and go and do something else.
And even when we’re very happily online, some of the features designed to keep us there for longer can make some of the internet a not-very-nice place.
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It’s no wonder that:
• 56% of teens say they wish social media had never been invented
• 60% of adults* say they are ‘hooked’ on their devices. (* you probably know one that is!)
So, how do you live your best life both online and off? And how do you use your smartphone and the digital world for all the good stuff, but not the bad?
That’s what digital wellbeing, and this book, is all about! It’s your route map to living healthily and happily with your smartphone and other devices. It will help you work out how to make sure that all your online activities keep you happy and healthy, and also how to find time for some of the experiences and joys that only life offline can bring. The sweet spot of the balance between the two is what we call achieving digital wellbeing.
You’re going to go on a journey of discovery to find your very own state of digital wellbeing. This book will be your guide.
g digital wellbeing. ing ery find your very e of digital g. This book our guide.
Creating a logbook
To make the most of your journey towards discovering digital wellbeing, try creating a logbook of your journey as you work through this book. Logbooks were originally developed by sailors many years ago to help them keep track of wind speeds, direction, distances and positions on their nautical voyages.
Looking back at old logbooks we can see they are very visual records of each journey at sea, with a huge variety of unique symbols, scribbles and notes added by the person keeping the log. They’re quite different from journals in that they’re not just words, they use pictures and shapes and diagrams to build up a vivid picture of a journey.
Keeping a logbook of your journey to digital wellbeing will help you notice and create healthy habits around your life online, and off. The knowledge you gain about yourself from filling in and viewing your logbook will make you mindful of your digital habits. And being mindful of your digital habits is the key to digital wellbeing.
To start keeping a logbook you will need:
• This book (there’s a section at the end of every chapter for your ‘log’)
• Coloured pens and pencils
• Your own ‘visual key’ of what you are logging.
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Your visual key
Your logbook’s visual key will be your way of recording the things you are doing that are helping you achieve your goals (see Month 1). To spark some ideas, the examples on the right represent time with friends, time spent off screens, time spent outside, and time spent trying out a new analogue activity (in this case, chess), amongst others. These are the kinds of things you’ll be logging throughout the book.
But you should also think about what you want to log that aligns with your unique goals and design a visual key that fits with that. You really don’t have to be remotely artistic to design a visual key of symbols that work for you – anything simple that you attach your own meaning to is ideal.
= time with friends offline
= time in nature
= chess
= 1-hour screen break
= tacos!
= time I felt really happy
= meditation
= time I faced a challenge head-on
Your logbook is entirely personal to you; the symbols and tracking around your digital wellbeing don’t need to make sense to anyone else. It’s your own unique code – it can be as easy or as complicated to understand as you want it to be.
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Sample logbook
Here’s an idea of what a completed logbook for one month might look like. This person has been logging lots of different hobbies and habits – from the number of times they meditated or practised their art, to how many times they enjoyed their favourite food, tacos! You can refer back to this example for inspiration as you progress with your own logbook. cra ing
1-hour screen breaks tacos!
times I felt really happy meditation
went to football acts of self-care
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went for walks without my phone
hung out with friends offline
played chess (and won twice!)
faced a challenge head-on
times I displayed a strength (practised my art)
tried a new analogue activity ... jigsaws!
Your habits become your values.
Mahatma Gandhi
Setting your goals
Who do you want to be?
What sort of person do you want to be? What do you want to do with your life? How do you want to earn a living? What are your values and beliefs? How do you want your friends to think about you, and to describe you?
These may not be questions that you’ve given very much thought to yet in your life, but now is a really good time to start.
The relationship between goals and habits
So much of the person we become as we grow older is grounded in the habits we develop when we are young. This month, I want to encourage you to think about setting some goals for your life (or even for just the next year), and then think about how to identify and develop the healthy habits you will need to help you achieve those goals. But first, let’s think a bit about goal setting. For this you’re going to need to write your goals down.
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The power of writing down goals
We seem to be able to conclude, from looking at lots of research on goal setting, that those who write their goals down have a much better chance of achieving them than those who don’t.
In 2007, a group of researchers at Dominican University studied the effectiveness of writing down goals using people recruited from a wide range of different businesses and industries. They divided the people into three groups and asked one group to just think about their goals, another to write down their goals, and the third to write down their goals with their commitments to the action they would take to achieve them, and to share them with others. The group who wrote down their goals and shared them with others were significantly more successful in achieving them, while both of the groups who wrote down their goals were altogether about 50% more successful than the one group who didn’t.
Your goals are personal to you. They could be to do with your life at school, your interests, your friendships, places you want to visit – anything really. Here are some examples of goals:
My goals (for now): I want to be better at tennis! I want to be better at I want to read more.
I want to spend more time with my friends.
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Make your goals S M A R T
As well as writing down your goals, it can be useful and motivating to think about how to make them S M A R T.
That is, they should be:
Specific – Make sure your goal is well defined and be clear about what you want to achieve.
Measurable – Consider how you will measure your progress. What small steps do you need to take to reach your goal?
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Achievable – Be realistic about what you can manage, and don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything at once.
Relevant – Ask yourself whether this goal is going to help you accomplish your wider objectives and get you to where you want to be.
Timed – Set yourself a deadline , which will help you to stay motivated and keep you accountable.
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