Mindful Mustangs: A Mindful Meditation App for Cal Poly SLO

This report discusses the creation and research behind a new mindfulness meditation application called Mindful Mustangs, which is created for the students of Cal Poly SLO. The goal of this mobile website is to use the various techniques used in mindful meditation to reduce the stress and anxiety that college students regularly face. With the onset of iOS and Android applications, similar health and behavioral applications are on the rise. The increase of these applications calls for a certain type of design and a robust analysis must be done to ensure the psychological health of the user. Mindfulness applications such as Stop, Breathe & Think and Calm have adopted different information architectures and aesthetics that are proven to achieve lower anxiety levels in the user. Understanding the features that contribute to the positive effects of these applications helped create Mindful Mustangs and can help develop more powerful psychological and behavioral applications in the future

Mindfulness as a Personal Strategy to Combat the Negative Effects of the Attention Economy

This paper argues the importance of a personal mindfulness practice as an antidote to the concerning effects of the attention economy. Modern technology is becoming more powerful every day and is giving individuals access to an unprecedented amount of information at the touch of a button. Many technology companies are profiting from gaining and selling the attention of their customers and are contributing to the attention economy. These very technologies have been shown to hijack the attention of consumers and keep them in an addictive feedback loop. Early research suggests mindfulness practices may be an effective strategy for strengthening attention networks and physically changing areas of the brain responsible for attention. This paper utilized prior research to generalize the viability of a personal mindfulness practice for taking control of an individual’s attention and to subsequently negate the negative effects of the attention economy. Further research on specific mindfulness practices and their outcome on certain aspects of the attention economy are warranted

Time well spent”: the ideology of temporal disconnection as a means for digital wellbeing

After facing an intense negative reaction to their accumulation of social, political, and economic power and influence, several tech and social media companies rolled out “digital wellbeing” tools during the second half of 2018. This article examines the technological and discursive construction of “digital wellbeing” as enacted through operating system-based tools (Screen Time and Do Not Disturb— iOS, Digital Wellbeing—Android, My Analytics—Microsoft), and social media platforms application functions (Your Time—Facebook, Time Watched—YouTube, Your Activity—Instagram). While the companies’ discourse deploys an imaginary centered around ethics and a normative experience accentuating the willfulness and empowerment of the user, the socio-material analysis of the interfaces and features shows that they envisage simple, familiar, and limited possibilities of disconnecting. Therefore, agency is limited, and the wellbeing outcomes are indeterminate, restricted to quantifying time or controlling the intentionality of connectivity

Mindful of a Profit? A Critical Analysis of Meditation Apps in the Context of Neoliberalism and Western Constructions of Religion

This research focuses on the growing trend of meditation apps. Close analysis of three meditation apps (Headspace, Insight Timer, and Calm) reveals how meditation has been marketed as secular through a deliberate obfuscation of Buddhist origins. Additionally, the context and effects of neoliberal ideology and bio-morality are discussed

Using Mobile Apps to Support the Implementation of Coping-relevant Behaviour Change Techniques for Self-management of Stress

Mobile apps have shown potential in early stress self-management interventions, yet they remain less beneficial than face-to-face therapies. One of the most effective ways people can cope with stress is to identify what their stressors are and take action in managing them. Coping-relevant behaviour change techniques (BCTs), such as self-monitoring, goal setting, and action planning, have the potential to support this process. Nevertheless, there is little guidance on how to incorporate such techniques into stress management apps. Drawing on mixed methods research, this thesis provides two contributions. First, it improves our understanding of how existing stress management apps support coping-relevant BCTs and suggests areas for improvements. An app functionality review and follow-up 3-week intervention using Welltory stress monitoring and Coach.me goal setting apps revealed that existing apps do not support users’ efforts with coping-relevant BCTs. Participants reported that Welltory did not yield sufficient data to gain insights into the factors affecting their stress. Relatedly, the way in which these apps implemented coping-relevant BCTs diminished peoples’ sense of autonomy and competence. Drawing on peoples’ experiences with existing apps and principles of positive computing, the second contribution of this thesis is the design and evaluation of Reffy - a chatbot prototype that integrates coping-relevant BCTs in a way that meets people’s stress management needs. Based on findings from a field evaluation study, we identify specific benefits and challenges of using a stress self-management chatbot. We find that chatbot-based reflective questioning helps people identify how factors impact their stress during early stages of self-tracking. Likewise, adding features that promote users’ sense of autonomy and competence improves Welltory’s ability to support coping strategies. This thesis advances our understanding of how behaviour change and stress coping techniques can be incorporated into mobile apps to effectively support stress self-management

Social Media for the Promotion of Holistic Self-Participatory Care: An Evidence Based Approach

Objectives: As health information is becoming increasingly accessible, social media offers ample opportunities to track, be informed, share and promote health. These authors explore how social media and holistic care may work together; more specifically however, our objective is to document, from different perspectives, how social networks have impacted, supported and helped sustain holistic self-participatory care. Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media for promoting health in general and complementary alternative care in particular. We also explore a case study of an intervention for improving the health of Greek senior citizens through digital and other means. Results: The Health Belief Model provides a framework for assessing the benefits of social media interventions in promoting comprehensive participatory self-care. Some interventions are particularly effective when integrating social media with real-world encounters. Yet not all social media tools are evidence-based and efficacious. Interestingly, social media is also used to elicit patient ratings of treatments (e.g., for depression), often demonstrating the effectiveness of complementary treatments, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation. Conclusions: To facilitate the use of social media for the promotion of complementary alternative medicine through self-quantification, social connectedness and sharing of experiences, exploration of concrete and abstract ideas are presented herewithin. The main mechanisms by which social support may help improve health - emotional support, an ability to share experiences, and non-hierarchal roles, emphasizing reciprocity in giving and receiving support – are integral to social media and provide great hope for its effective us

Does It Work for Me? Supporting Self-Experimentation of Simple Health Behavior Interventions

abstract: Many individual-level behavioral interventions improve health and well-being. However, most interventions exhibit considerable heterogeneity in response. Put differently, what might be effective on average might not be effective for specific individuals. From an individual’s perspective, many healthy behaviors exist that seem to have a positive impact. However, few existing tools support people in identifying interventions that work for them, personally. One approach to support such personalization is via self-experimentation using single-case designs. ‘Hack Your Health’ is a tool that guides individuals through an 18-day self-experiment to test if an intervention they choose (e.g., meditation, gratitude journaling) improves their own psychological well-being (e.g., stress, happiness), whether it fits in their routine, and whether they enjoy it. The purpose of this work was to conduct a formative evaluation of Hack Your Health to examine user burden, adherence, and to evaluate its usefulness in supporting decision-making about a health intervention. A mixed-methods approach was used, and two versions of the tool were tested via two waves of participants (Wave 1, N=20; Wave 2, N=8). Participants completed their self-experiments and provided feedback via follow-up surveys (n=26) and interviews (n=20). Findings indicated that the tool had high usability and low burden overall. Average survey completion rate was 91%, and compliance to protocol was 72%. Overall, participants found the experience useful to test if their chosen intervention helped them. However, there were discrepancies between participants’ intuition about intervention effect and results from analyses. Participants often relied on intuition/lived experience over results for decision-making. This suggested that the usefulness of Hack Your Health in its current form might be through the structure, accountability, and means for self-reflection it provided rather than the specific experimental design/results. Additionally, situations where performing interventions within a rigorous/restrictive experimental set-up may not be appropriate (e.g., when goal is to assess intervention enjoyment) were uncovered. Plausible design implications include: longer experimental and phase durations, accounting for non-compliance, missingness, and proximal/acute effects, and exploring strategies to complement quantitative data with participants’ lived experiences with interventions to effectively support decision-making. Future work should explore ways to balance scientific rigor with participants’ needs for such decision-making.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Exercise and Nutritional Sciences 201

Self-Tracking by People Living with Multiple Sclerosis: Supporting Experiences of Agency in a Chronic Neurological Condition

Multiple sclerosis is a complex neurological condition. It disrupts the central nervous system leading to an individual range of physical, cognitive, and mental impairments. Research has focused on the tracking of primary disease indicators and disability outcome measures to assess the progression of this condition. However, there is little knowledge on how technologies could support the needs of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in self-tracking their health and wellbeing. Drawing on qualitative research and design methods this thesis provides two contributions. Firstly, it improves understanding of self-tracking in MS self-management. Interview participants reported regaining a sense of control over MS through intertwining individual self-care practices with different self-tracking tools, including paper notebooks and fitness wearables. They associated experiences of control with their agency to document their health in holistic ways, involving symptom monitoring and life journaling. However, participants criticised that self-tracking apps can impede their capacities, in particular when the user experience is focused on predefined health indicators and the optimisation of health behaviour. These findings highlight the need to support people’s individual self-care intentions and agentive capacities through customisable self- tracking approaches. Secondly, this thesis contributes the design of Trackly, a technology probe that supports people in defining and colouring pictorial trackers, such as body shapes. We identify benefits and challenges of customisable and pictorial self-tracking through a field study of Trackly in MS self-management. Having been able to support their individual self-care intentions with Trackly, participants reported a spectrum of interrelated experiences of agency, including ownership, identity, awareness, mindfulness, and control. Overall, this thesis provides a qualitative account and design perspective that demonstrate how adapting self-tracking technologies to individual care needs supported experiences of agency. These findings are particularly relevant to the design of technologies aimed at leveraging personally meaningful self-care and quality of life

THE USE OF DISTRACTION: DOOMSCROLLING, LOSING TIME, AND DIGITAL WELL-BEING IN PANDEMIC SPACE-TIMES

In the space-times of the COVID-19 global health crisis, how have our relationships with smartphones changed? How do popular discourses designate mundane engagements with digital technologies as healthy or unhealthy, and how are these notions of wellness practiced? This thesis draws upon an online survey of smartphone users residing in Kentucky, and a review of marketing, journalistic, and academic literature to establish current understandings of ‘digital well-being’. The paper then analyzes interviews with Kentucky smartphone users who were asked to track their screen time for a one-week period. This project reveals normative conceptions of well-being and the role of smartphone and screen time metrics in producing ideas of digital wellness. The thesis draws upon health geographies, disability studies, media studies, and STS to argue that the common heuristics of digital wellness are insufficient to either understand or improve subjective well-being, and that a relational and ecological analysis of ‘digital well-being’ allows us to re-evaluate normative prescriptions of care. Mobilizing theories of attention and neoliberal biopolitics, the paper connects normative notions of attentiveness and wellness to demonstrate a specific assemblage of ‘digital well-being,’ and theorizes distraction as a set of ambivalent, unruly practices which might disrupt it

Contextual and design factors that influence the use of consumer technologies for self-management of stress by teachers

Persistent psychosocial stress is endemic in the modern workplace, including amongst secondary school teachers in England. There is intense interest in the potential role of digital technology such as apps, wearables and online programmes to support stress management but insufficient understanding of how the contexts of teachers’ work influence their use. Using a constructivist paradigm, a series of qualitative studies was conducted to understand the influence of these contextual factors. First semi-structured qualitative interviews with teachers were thematically analysed to reveal the physical, social and cultural contextual constraints on teachers’ stress management. Then to enable teachers’ choice of consumer technology for the longitudinal study, an analytical study generated a populated taxonomy of self-management strategies for stress with digital support options. This was presented in workshops to enable some informed choice. Finally, the qualitative longitudinal summer term study explored eight teachers’ experiences of using their chosen technology in their daily lives. The pandemic meant interviews were online and teachers were mainly working from home. The study was extended with six participants into the autumn term when all teachers had returned to school premises. Cross-case analysis revealed the teachers’ experiences of using technology for stress management included the explanatory power of contextually mediated data, generating awareness, permission to self-care and empathy. The findings suggest implications for self-determination theory (SDT). Thematic analysis revealed facilitators and barriers to using the technology in the school context. There are associated implications for school wellbeing support and designers, and considerations for the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). This thesis’ main contributions include unique insight into teachers’ experiences of consumer technologies for workplace stress management and the technology features that facilitate self-care. Stress awareness derived from interaction with the technology and personal data gave teachers permission to self-care. Facilitators included brief, discreet interactions and contextually relevant prompts and information. Barriers to use included insufficient technology instructions, and contextual constraints of the relentless work culture, social stigma and lack of privacy. This thesis also documents an innovative process for developing and populating a taxonomy to facilitate technology selection, including specifically for teachers managing stress. Finally, it makes recommendations of interest to designers, school leaders and policy makers seeking to improve teachers’ ability to digitally support their stress self-management