What COVID-19 has taught us about Digital Wellbeing
Today we celebrate Digital Wellness Day. This day exists to raise the profile on digital wellbeing and to challenge us to pause and consider our relationship with technology.
It is particularly timely, in this second month of COVID lock-down, when our digital habits have been cast in a new light. As billions of lives have moved online, Digital wellbeing has never been so relevant. We are alone together and yet more connected than ever.
Over the past few weeks we have learned more about digital wellbeing than we could have in several years. I am excited about the research that SPACE is supporting to understand this live global experiment. The results of those studies will take some time, but in the meantime, here are my main observations to date on what COVID has taught us about digital wellbeing.
The digital divide has segregated society
It has long been my concern that Digital wellbeing is a conversation for the privileged. We have spent hours debating the right screentime balance, the impacts of fake news, social media’s impact on society, how to make tech better…the list goes on. But you can only improve your relationship with technology if you have easy, affordable access to technology in the first place. For too many, this is simply not the case.
Millions of people across the UK do not have the infrastructure, the devices, the finances or skill set to use the online services which have become core to our daily existence. They cannot work, learn, or to stay connected. They cannot do their banking, order food, or book a doctor’s appointment. They cannot easily claim government assistance.
Access and affordability is a real concern and steps are being taken. For instance, some local councils are distributing devices to children who would otherwise be excluded from learning.
But for many, access alone is not the issue, skills are. A step-change in our reliance on digital has created stress for millions of people. Take a close friend who described herself as a ‘second class citizen’ because she couldn’t start a group video chat; or an employee from one of the biggest organisations in the UK, who said he was ‘drowning’ in the new digital demands.
Technology will continue to evolve, and reliance on digital will grow. Ensuring the whole population is connected, educated and informed so that they can fully participate online should be the most urgent concern for government and society. Without digital participation, equality does not stand a chance.
In the screentime debate, screens just won
For those of us who are online, in the screentime debate, screens just won. Simply put, were it not for technology, our global economies, communities, families, personal lives, would have suffered even more than they have.
Sheryl Turkle was one of the first to voice her concern on the rise of screentime and the impact that it had on relationships. She said that screens make us “Alone Together”. Now as we recognize the positivity that screentime has brought for many, she too is revising her earlier stance, praising the connection that screens have brought.
She highlights how this period has led to a rise in authenticity, with many of us having ‘as human experience on the medium as you possibly can’. Working parents no longer need to segregate their lives; their families all too present onscreen or in the background din of the household. Social media has become more a place for genuine connection, rather than airbrushed holiday snaps.
Many of us are appreciating the value of voice over text. In conversation, she says, there is uncertainty — who knows what the other person will say. Uncertainty is vulnerability; crucial if we are to build strong relationships. Whilst online connection is still lacking what can be gained face to face — and I would agree that there is a physical energy we cannot replicate — she says an engaging conversation on Zoom can get pretty close.
“We have discovered that, when used well alongside the human values of vulnerability, compassion, determination, screens can be a place where strong connections and relationships can flourish.”
We have discovered that, when used well alongside the human values of vulnerability, compassion, determination, screens can be a place where strong connections and relationships can flourish. Expect a rise in the number of people opting to work remotely, as more of us get better at how we interact online.
Many of us have terrible digital wellbeing, but we are learning
The challenge with living, working, parenting, teaching, relaxing, socialising all from one place is that it makes it very difficult to create boundaries in the functions of your lives; when they can or should begin and end. For many, this has meant a blurring of work / life balance, with people feeling exhausted, burnt out or overwhelmed. However, 6+ weeks in, whilst many of us are still busier than ever, we are all finding better ways to stick to schedules, crucial for a degree of sanity. We are learning through doing how to build better boundaries, including around our online life.
We have also learned, the hard way, that information overwhelm is real. Like me, many friends and colleagues are now managing homeschooling for the first time. We have been bombarded with resources, activity suggestions and school requirements to ‘keep our kids on track’. Many parents have felt incredible pressure to keep up with everything that has been shared, that they will fail their kids if they don’t. And ‘helpful’ class whatsapp groups often make this feeling worse; social comparison is rife.
The reality is that there are many ways to teach and many ways to learn, and few are better placed than parents to understand how their child best learns. But when we are bombarded with information we often forget to follow our intuition, to the detriment of who we are and how we choose to parent.
“When we are bombarded with information we often forget to follow our intuition, to the detriment of who we are and how we choose to parent.”
How could children have benefited during this time if there was an opportunity for families to simply build their own journeys? For kids to become expert cooks, gardeners, artists, musicians? For families to just focus on activities that made the lives of people outside their four walls just a little bit better? For children to work on a plan for a future world which was better, brighter? But overloaded with information, it has been hard for us to make these choices, the status quo has reigned, and many kids have been glued to a screen. I am interested to understand what impact on active learning this will have had, and fear in this regard we still have a lot to learn.
Fake news is a real
How to manage our relationship with the news, or with information on social media, is a core pillar of any digital wellbeing discussion. Just like with online education, in the past weeks the news has been booming, a constant flurry of information, statistics, contradictions, opinions, recommendations. But the reality is that whilst there is more information than any one person could possibly consume, none of it holds the answer to the question that we all want to know: when will this all be over?
“The reality is that whilst there is more information than any one person could possibly consume, none of it holds the answer to the question that we all want to know: when will this all be over?”
And so instead we scroll, share, stress, searching for an answer that simply does not exist. Added to this, much of the information simply isn’t true. And whilst some global politicians may be in part to blame, so too is a content ecosystem rife with bad actors and unmoderated distribution streams.
However, I think that there are two potentially positive trends to emerge from this noise. Firstly, the technology giants are starting to take more of a proactive stance in their responsibility to better manage misinformation on their platforms. They are, of course, baby steps, and will mean little without important supporting regulatory frameworks, but they are there.
Secondly, many of us have just had enough. It is my hope that many, as I have, will simply become jaded by the constant call to our attention that social media and news platforms bring. Like someone who has binged on sugar for a week to a point of feeling sick — you just have had enough. Could it be that by overdosing on news, we will break our need for it?
And finally, being online is good, but is is not the same
Our immersion into the online world has been incredibly powerful in helping us to see what can and can not be provided digitally. It’s why Zoom calls with friends or family are great, but also as the novelty wears off, why they can also sap our energy.
Connections are becoming more meaningful online, but at the same time, they are reminding us of the value that we get from real physical contact that can not be replicated online. I am physically aching to hug my 96 grandma. The emotion through her window is palpable, and nothing can be done to soothe it. Without touch we are not ourselves, we have lost a sense from ourselves.
Many of these topics are complex issues in their own right which I intend to tackle in more detail in subsequent posts. Until then though, will we learn sufficiently from what we have experienced through COVID, to positively change our relationship with technology? To embrace those people who are most marginalised by the divide? To recognise that true connection needs vulnerability and friction, that it can not replace physical contact? To find ways to better improve our literacy so that we can all discern what is real and what is fake?
COVID has shown millions more people how digital wellbeing is really important. We all need to learn the importance of being in control of how we choose to use our technology. We need to consciously connect.