WHAT A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT DIGITAL WELLBEING
In recent times, conversations around Digital Wellbeing have become increasingly frequent. A big technology company like Google has taken a lead in this conversation by launching its digital wellbeing Application and so many efforts are being made by Google to inculcate digital wellbeing trackers into many of its products.
What is Digital Wellbeing?
“Digital Wellbeing is about crafting and maintaining a healthy relationship with technology. It’s about how technology serves us and moves us towards our goals, rather than distracting us, interrupting us or getting in the way. Being in control of technology enables us to use its full potential and gain all the benefits of it”. (Google)
According to Android Authority, “Digital wellbeing is a movement concerned with controlling the amount of time we spend in front of mobile devices, the web, and technology in general”.
Why the concern about Digital Wellbeing?
There are myriads of reasons why there has been an increase in the concern about how much time people now spend with their phones and other technological devices in recent times. Some of them are;
- Too much Screen time can cause Insomnia
In a 2014 study, the blue light of many technological devices has been found to disturb the body’s natural circadian rhythm. This can lead to difficulty in falling asleep or can make an individual feel less alert on the following day.
2. Too much Social Network Usage has been linked to Depression.
Many people who spend a lot of time on their phones spend a reasonable amount of their time on social media. The authors of a 2016 systematic review Trusted Source have been able to establish a link between the usage of social media and mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
A good number of social media users usually compare their real lives to those of friends and family members who share the highlights of their lives on social media.
3. Distraction.
Notifications and other features that come with many applications have been found to pose the challenge of distracting their users. There has been a dip in the average attention span of humans as more and more people are being bombarded with the influx of information from their devices.
Other outcomes can be proved to be downsides of too much exposure to technology than one can handle that we cannot mention here to keep this article concise.
What tools can we use to increase digital wellbeing?
To increase our digital wellbeing, we can use the following tools:
- App timers limit how many minutes or hours a user can spend on certain websites or applications per day. These can also be used to restrict access after a certain time of day.
- Usage dashboards, like the one integrated into the Android OS, that track how many hours a user spends on different apps or websites. This can be used to limit or track average use.
- Website blockers allow users to block certain websites, either at all times or during certain time intervals, to decrease distraction and increase productivity. An example of a website blocker is the tool Cold Turkey.
- Google Shush is a feature that switches a device to “do not disturb” mode whenever it is placed screen down and Google Wind Down is a feature that flips the screen to grayscale at a specified bedtime.
What does the increasing conversation about Digital wellbeing mean to a developer?
This means that we as developers need to be more aware of the impact of the technologies we build on our users. We need to be keener on providing the best kind of user experience within the shortest possible time. With the increase in awareness of the downsides of constant app usage, people are now more cautious of the amount of time they spend on their devices and we need to consider this as we build and test our applications.
Also, this means that we cannot bombard people with alerts and notifications just to make them remain in our apps for a long time. We need to make our apps easy to use so that users can move on to the next task.
As we become more conscious of Digital well-being in our software designs, we would be enabling apps users to use technology to its full potential and gain all the benefits of it.
