What is digital wellbeing?
Digital wellbeing is more than just where we spend our time online. It's how we hold ourselves when we're there: how we manage our minds, our attention, our hearts and our emotions, and how our relationship with technology shapes our health, habits and happiness.
When I tell people I'm a digital wellbeing coach, I often get a slightly puzzled look.
It's a hot topic, yet not many people really understand what digital wellbeing means. Years ago, I ran a digital wellbeing workshop at a festival and had far smaller numbers than the yoga and breathwork sessions next door. It's difficult for people to acknowledge, because it's so woven into all our lives. I think we've all got an unhealthy relationship with our phones in some way, whether we know it or not.
So here's what digital wellbeing means to me, after twenty-five years working inside social media and six years studying what it does to us.
More than screen time
Screen time matters. But counting hours is an outside-in approach. Digital wellbeing is also about what happens inside us when we're online.
It's having the inner steadiness to witness what's there without being swept away by it. To stay informed without being consumed. To care, without drowning in back-to-back rabbit holes.
Personal, subjective and unique
I've been saying it since my first book: our relationship with technology is personal, subjective and unique, much like the algorithms themselves.
None of us are having the same experience online. The app that drains one person lifts up another. The habit that's harmless for me might be hard for you. That's why digital wellbeing can't be one set of rules. It starts with noticing what's true for you.
It isn't anti-technology
I fell in love with the internet in 1996, and I still believe in what social media can be. I've made friends for life online, watched people find their voice, and seen movements spread in ways that would have been unthinkable twenty years ago.
The problem isn't technology. It's the business model built on top of it, designed to keep us scrolling, comparing and coming back for more.
I want to use technology in my life and my work. I just don't want it to be my life. Balance is everything.
Imagine if social media was designed for our wellbeing rather than for profit. The whole game would change.
What digital wellbeing covers
Attention and focus
Why we pick up our phones, how feeds hold us, and how to get our attention back.
Why do I keep picking up my phone?Emotions and mental health
Comparison, anxiety, the habit of checking, and how moods spread through our feeds.
Why is it so hard to stop scrolling?DoomscrollingThe body
Posture, sleep, tired eyes, a tight chest, a fluttering tummy. Our bodies carry our screen time too, and research increasingly shows that working through the body has a longer-lasting effect.
Relationships and presence
Being with the people in the room with us, not half in our phones.
Digital self-care: simple ways to feel betterThinking and AI
What happens to our thinking, creativity and relationships as AI becomes part of daily life.
AI and attentionWhy it matters now
Digital is the water we're all swimming in. We can't pretend it isn't shaping us. It's shaping our nervous systems, our minds, our moods, our lives and our world.
People in the UK are on track to spend nearly five years of their waking lives on their phones unintentionally. The way I see it, that's five years of free labour for big tech.
And now AI is here. The attention economy was the first wave. The attachment economy, where AI learns how we feel and becomes part of our relationships, is rolling in now.
Wellbeing, literacy, experiment
Digital wellbeing
The goal: a healthier, more balanced relationship with technology.
Attention literacy
The knowledge: understanding how technology is designed to capture attention, and what it does to us.
What is attention literacy?The Attention Experiment
The practice: four words, Scroll, Loop, Notice, Choose, to catch the loop and choose what happens next.
See how it worksHow I became a digital wellbeing coach
I spent twenty-five years inside social media: in the music industry, running my own social media agency, and managing platforms for bestselling authors.
Around 2018, I woke up to what I call the shadow side of social media. I learned about addictive and persuasive design, and I noticed how anxious and overwhelmed many of my clients were. I felt it too. By 2019, I was burnt out, disillusioned and, honestly, a bit addicted. I wrote about it in my second book.
So during lockdown in 2020, I trained as one of the first digital wellbeing coaches, with the Consciously Digital Institute, studying what screens do to our brains and bodies. I'm now a fellow of the Institute, and I'm retaking the diploma in 2026 to keep up with the research on AI, because this field moves so fast. My written evidence to Parliament on AI and EdTech in education is published in the Education Committee's inquiry.
Poacher turned gamekeeper, as my business coach put it. More about me
Digital wellbeing for schools and workplaces
In schools, I run assemblies and workshops for pupils, staff CPD and INSET, and parent and carer talks, with a seven-day follow-up review. See the schools programme
In workplaces, I've seen first-hand how success can equal screen time. The busier and more successful we are, the more our work pulls us online. I run sessions for teams, online or in person, on phones, focus and AI. Find out about sessions for teams or book a free 30-minute taster.
Questions people ask
What is digital wellbeing?
Digital wellbeing is more than how much time we spend online. It’s how we hold ourselves when we’re there: how we manage our minds, attention and emotions, and how our relationship with technology affects our health, habits and happiness.
What does a digital wellbeing coach do?
A digital wellbeing coach helps people and organisations understand how technology affects them, and build a healthier relationship with it. My work combines the latest research, neuroscience and real-life stories, with practical, body-based tools.
Is digital wellbeing the same as a digital detox?
No. A detox can be a helpful reset, but digital wellbeing is about an ongoing relationship with technology. For most of us, total abstinence isn’t the answer. Balance is.
How can I improve my digital wellbeing?
Start by noticing: when you pick up your phone, why, and how you feel afterwards. Then try small changes, like an evening cut-off or cleaning up your feed. My digital self-care guide has twelve simple ideas to try.