In Hekate we’re strongly focusing on the digital aspects of the different areas of life, too. We approach ageing, mental health, work, personal fulfilment, social life and community, and even sustainability through our digital lenses. Why? Because we do live in a digital era that requires us to intentionally and critically reflect on and act upon the digital approaches we take within, for or thanks to these areas of life. We are also committed to guide individuals and communities to obtain their optimal state of health and wellbeing while using technology, aka Digital Wellbeing. We organise local and online events, we run club discussions, we publish informative articles as part of this commitment. What we find extremely important is to create space for dialogues so that we can really understand what you, the members of our community, need indeed. We undoubtedly learn a lot about this during the events! Last year we’ve also ran a survey with one of our partners, A Bit Better from Estonia, that many of you have filled in – thank you again for that.
In this article we’re sharing with you what we’ve learned about your thoughts, challenges, coping tricks etc. about digital wellbeing. In the survey and beyond.
To talk about a general overview, we’ve asked our community to tell us about how they feel they behave in certain aspects of their digital lives. In a two areas we could observe some sort of confidence:
- 60% of respondents stated they strongly or mostly feel like Communication Champions since they think to have effective and frustration-free communication online both with colleagues and friends. Amazing! Only 15% felt the exact opposite.
- Another great news is that 50% of respondents feel to be real Privacy Gurus – or at least they’re close to that: they are aware of the privacy, security and notification settings of social media platforms and subscribed apps etc and they reevaluate my settings from time to time. This is something to applaud! At this topic though we can observe more radicals, as 30% feel they are really or pretty bad with this privacy question.
We could observe some more concerning answers, too:
- When it comes to focus, only 35% of our lovely lot felt Focus Ninjas because constant notifications, advertisements, random pop-up windows, multiple open tabs and softwares mostly DON’T challenge them – they get through their to-do list always as planned, nevertheless. Another 40% said so-so, and 25% expressed the total opposite.
- 37,5% of the respondents said they find it difficult to fully switch off, they feel like they’re missing something important if they don’t check their phone – and basically they feel they need to be “always-on”. We consider this quite a high number, especially when only a bit more than a quarter feels actually easy to switch off!
- Although 42,5 % of the ones we asked feel they are Tech Pros: changes, updates and new features of their usual softwares/tools/apps (such as Zoom/Gmail), or learning quickly any new software/platform they need to use DON’T stress them – they are confident in tech and know very well where to find support when they need it; a significant 37,5% expressed to feel the total opposite!
These above already show some improvement areas, and the worst is still yet to come:
- Only 17,5% of those who filled in our survey feel they are Wellbeing Heroes, meaning that their habits help them feel relaxed, balanced and generally well both emotionally and mentally. 32,5% expressed strong struggles.
- 40% of the respondents claimed to identify with the title Mr/Ms Drained: they often feel overwhelmed by the amount of (read or unread) email & chat messages, and online meetings they have.
- Last but not least more than half of those who responded, to be exact 52,5% said that they do not feel to be Plan Masters and they don’t have strict rules about why, when and how they use their digital devices. Only 20% claimed to feel confident Plan Masters.
What does this mean in terms of the bigger picture of our community’s digital wellbeing? Let’s see our responding community average:
We’ve been always curious to understand what our communities greatest online and digital challenges are during work. What we’ve understood so far:
- general info- and e-mail overload
- difficulties with separating online and offline presence, lack of tech-life balance design
- adjusting to dynamically changing algorithms
- not optimal digital infrastructure and framework provided by employer
- lack of practice-based learning in digital topics
- riddles of our digital spaces, such as continuous password issues or running out of memory/space (and not knowing what to do about it) technostress
- manipulative content of Social Media
- risk of addiction and media bubbles
- the beauty of borderless online work creates intercultural frustration
- overwhelming amount and „structure“ of applications; using the right platform for the right purpose
- constant noise, notifications, pop-ups as constant source of distraction
- struggle in prioritizing in the online space
- difficulties with „switching off“ Social Media
- too much time online
- difficulties with building and maintaining meaningful online connections
- lack of intentional existence in digital spaces (flow)
- lack of digital literacy (even people of leading position often need basic digital training)
- privacy issues
- missing important things due to multiple communication channels
- constant multitasking
- spam emails, phising
We also asked our community about their best practices: tools, methods, rules that support their tech-life balance and wellbeing. We were very happy to see some really cool things:
- Evening wind-down process: switching off phone and laptop 30-40 mins before going to bed and setting up „do no disturb“ between 22:00 and 06:00
- Notifications set only for people that one wants to know about, the rest is on mute. Switching off availability status.
- Leaving the phone behind (in another room for example) in order to rest
- Strict work-life balance, regular yoga-sport-nature.
- Reviewing screen-time data of the day/week
- Filtering content, using adblock
- Purposefully looking for content outside of one‘s comfort zone
- Active offline social-life, spending time in nature, travelling, cycling
- Taking digital break from time to time
- Using paper calendar and other old-school methods
- Connecting social media with hobbies so that it de-stresses one
- Calming yoga stretching (including yoga nidra) or practicing Jacobson relaxation technique – both regularly
- Using Social Media only for work purpose
- Not using mobile or laptop while the children are around
- Using Pomodoro timer or other focus management apps
- Reading and meditating
- Dedicated screen-free/tech-free time; dedicated e-mail time
- Switching off pop-up notifications
- Reading more psychological, wellbeing and creative news than economical and political articles; not watching news
- Using Tetris to destress in breaks
- Online fitness activities
- Working only from a specific home of office space (not elsewhere in the house)
- Keeping the time spent at the dining table or in bed offline
- Minimalist design of phone organisation
While it is wonderful to see many hints & tips, and best practices, we cannot empathize enough that Digital Wellbeing is an individual measure. Everyone
‘s optimal state of health and wellbeing will be defined by their own values, goals and needs – which is unique. One thing can work for one, and be totally harmful for another and vice versa. Our greatest learning from the last year that we do need to continue creating space for conversations where we can all stop and think about how we want to live our life in the digital space, and plan and act based on those wishes. And how we imagine this?
- Club conversations where individuals can share their current challenges and talk about different approaches or solutions.
- Guided learning experiences (workshops, trainings) where we have dedicated time to discover and work on a specific area of many of Digital Wellbeing – both for personal or professional purposes.
- Short- and long-term training programmes for individuals and professionals of communities and organisations about basic digital hard- and soft skills – for building sustainable digital habits and culture, digital resilience and digital wellbeing.
So what‘s on the rise to support this mission? 🙂
- Check out our Club Conversations, the next talk is coming soon!
2. Check our self-paced online training opportunity (free) about Digital Consciousness and Digital Readiness! 🙂
3. Follow us and stay tuned for further opportunities, as there is quite some plans in the making! 🙂 Short and long-term, too.
This article was written thanks to the survey that 40 members of our community kindly filled in for us and thanks to the lot of feedback we received during several offline and online events we had in the last year. Thank you again! ❤
Hekate 