7 days ago
Book Review: ‘Digital Wellbeing,' Redefining Our Relationship With Tech
In a media landscape saturated with anxiety about screen time and AI overreach, Caitlin Krause's Digital Wellbeing offers a thoughtful framing to explore our relationship with our devices and each other. Rather than retreating into digital detox rhetoric, Krause proposes a model of engaged, imaginative participation, particularly for those who are questioning what we have done to ourselves and our relationships.
While Krause's degree is in art, not technology, she has considerable practical experience as a programmer. Today, Krause is an immersive experience designer and an instructor at Stanford. She brings a scholar's curiosity and a storyteller's sensibility to the subject. Her point is that the future of well-being is inseparable from our relationship with technology, and our success in navigating it depends on reframing that relationship as one of possibility rather than fear.
Across 11 chapters and a series of creative frameworks, including her 'Imagination Index' and 'Presence Pyramid,' Krause guides readers through the layered dimensions of digital life, exploring spatial computing and AI to immersive experiences, music, movement, and mindfulness. 'Digital is a conduit,' she writes. 'The human-to-human, and human-to-nature, and essentially human-to-epiphany/wonder/awe/flow can be mediated by technology.'
The book's middle chapters, particularly 7 and 8, are the heart of the story, where Krause explores how XR, gaming, and immersive storytelling can become powerful conduits for self-discovery and connection. Chapter 7 addresses for designers what strategies can be used in creating digital experiences to unlock curiosity, wonder and transformation. In chapter 8, she writes the playbook for the potential of immersive technologies to unlock emotional states which are conducive to awe. There's also a bonus interlude here from Rodney Mullen about somatics and spatial XR. As an artist, she is more interested in the design and purpose of tech, beyond its construction. Her concern is the why behind our digital behaviors. What experiences bring awe? What tools invite presence rather than distraction? Her approach is refreshingly participatory. 'To design for wonder, you need to live wonder as a key ingredient,' she notes. 'This is not about paint-by-number and forced outcomes.'
Throughout, Krause's voice is personal and invitational. She invites readers to recall moments of awe, to reflect, to pause. The book is organized as a kind of 'necklace,' each chapter a bead that can stand alone or link into a larger narrative. She rejects formulaic solutions, emphasizing that digital wellbeing must be self-defined, embodied, and open to constant reappraisal. This openness is the book's central motif. 'We're establishing new metrics,' she writes, 'new KPIs for what it means to thrive… There is a possibility for wholeness and freedom.'
For leaders, educators, and creatives looking to integrate AI and spatial computing while embracing their humanity, Digital Wellbeing offers a valuable roadmap.
