Well-Being in Our Digital Environment

Online Environments Often Shape Our Lives… How Can We Protect Our Health and Well-Being?

For years, health and wellness practitioners have recognized the environment as a powerful determinant of well-being. Clean air, natural light, safe neighborhoods, ergonomic workplaces are not luxuries but foundations of health. Our series has been exploring the Environment pillar of our Health and Wellness Foundations, starting with our home environment (the quality of air, light, sound, and space where we rest and recover), our work environment (the ergonomics, culture, and stress dynamics of productive life), and our community and external environments (outdoor spaces, community settings, and their relationship to movement and social connection).

This fourth article turns to an environment that is unique in human history: the digital world. Unlike our homes, workplaces, community or the outdoors, this environment lives in our pockets and travels with us everywhere. It’s been designed by some of the world’s most sophisticated behavioral engineers to keep our attention as long as poss…