Open AccessDigital Wellbeing as a Dynamic Construct
Author(s) -
Mariek Vanden Abeele
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
communication theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.671
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1468-2885
pISSN - 1050-3293
DOI - 10.1093/ct/qtaa024
Subject(s) - autonomy , context (archaeology) , psychological intervention , construct (python library) , balance (ability) , affect (linguistics) , psychology , experiential learning , social psychology , relation (database) , computer science , sociology , political science , communication , paleontology , mathematics education , database , neuroscience , psychiatry , law , biology , programming language
Mobile media support our autonomy by connecting us to persons, content and services independently of time and place constraints. At the same time, they challenge our autonomy: We face new struggles, decisions, and pressure in relation to whether, when and where we connect and disconnect. Digital wellbeing is a new concept that refers to the (lack) of balance that we may experience in relation to mobile connectivity. This article develops a theoretical model of digital wellbeing that accounts for the dynamic and complex nature of our relationship to mobile connectivity, thereby overcoming conceptual and methodological limitations associated with existing approaches. This model considers digital wellbeing an experiential state of optimal balance between connectivity and disconnectivity that is contingent upon a constellation of person-, device- and context-specific factors. I argue that these constellations represent pathways to digital wellbeing that—when repeated—affect wellbeing outcomes, and that the effectiveness of digital wellbeing interventions depends on their disruptive impact on these pathways.