Digital Well-being Challenges encourage mindful device use

Hokie Wellness has expanded the resources and tools around its weekly Digital Well-being Challenge to inspire students to practice a balanced use of technology.  

Laurie Fritsch, assistant director of Hokie Wellness, recognizes how phone use impacts college students in their daily lives and has worked to create a program that helps students step away from screens when it is not beneficial to their overall well-being and success.

Fritsch’s newest initiative works to invigorate students to begin their digital wellness journey by participating in weekly challenges that correspond to an aspect of the Digital Wellness Institute’s framework for digital flourishing. Weekly themes support students in accomplishing the framework’s eight dimensions of flourishing, including productivity, environment, communication, relationships, mental health, physical health, tech-enabled health, and digital citizenship.

Weekly challenges are crafted to be easily integrated into students’ daily lives, establishing a foundation of ideas and practices students can use to expand their involvement with digital well-being. Challenge topics center around four core goals of digital wellness: increase focus, ExperienceVT, support relationships, and encourage brain breaks.

“I want the challenge to reflect that there is something for everyone, because behavior change is difficult,” said Fritsch. “I want people not only to contemplate their desire to be digitally mindful, but to be empowered to recognize their self-efficacy, to feel they can make changes and then continue to do it.”

Environmental cues support habit change

Fritsch emphasizes environmental cues’ central role in influencing students to continue their wellness goals. If students resonate with a well-being challenge, they can download a customized weekly lock screen for their phones that reinforces the week’s digital wellness goal.

“The lock screens are a constant reminder of what students are trying to do by participating in the challenge,” said Fritsch. “Every time they pick up their phone, they’re nudged to continue towards their goal — it’s a behavioral technique.”

Other reminders are spread across campus to encourage students to continue or begin their journey of intentional technology use. “Hang Up and Hang Out” posters are located in West End at Cochrane Hall and Breakzone in Squires Student Center, alongside JoMO phone boxes that prompt Hokies to put away their phones to be present while spending time with others.

After completing a weekly well-being challenge, students are invited to reflect and share their experiences with Hokie Wellness to earn a free Hokie Wellness T-shirt, becoming a living reminder of digital mindfulness.

Invest in your attention with Hokie Wellness

In partnership with Residential Well-being, Hokie Wellness outreach events occur weekly outside of residence halls on campus. Hokies can participate in educational activities and discussions surrounding digital wellness and earn “Bird Bucks” redeemable for prizes from the Hokie Wellness office.

Hokie Wellness connects with students as they take part in organizational events through GobblerConnect and first-year experience courses. By reaching students as they engage in unplugged activities, gatherings, or class participation, Fritsch hopes to inform students and advance their personal ambitions surrounding technology use moderation.

“It’s very socially acceptable to be on your phone everywhere,” said Fritsch. “But students in every class I’ve visited say they’re bothered when they’re spending time with others and everyone is on their phone.”

According to Fritsch, social normalization plays a significant role in impacting behavioral changes. By sharing the voices of students engaged with digital wellness, Hokie Wellness works to motivate the greater Virginia Tech community to get involved with or continue engagement with wellness initiatives.

Virginia Tech was named the First Certified Digitally Well University by the Digital Wellness Institute in 2023, reflecting the university's revolutionary strides in cultivating a dynamic culture and resources to support digital mindfulness among the Virginia Tech community.

Fritsch hopes digital wellness initiatives will empower students to shift their behavior and reevaluate their relationships with screens. By understanding the impacts of technology usage on individual well-being, students are given a tool that enables them to flourish both academically and personally during their time at Virginia Tech and onward.

To learn more and to see the current weekly Digital Well-being Challenge, visit the Hokie Wellness Digital Well-being page.

Written by Kyndall Hanson, a senior majoring in multimedia journalism and philosophy, politics, and economics