Digital Well-being

Morning sun rising over the hokie stone buildings on the Blacksburg campus and shining through the trees creating a lens flare.

Unplug

At Virginia Tech, we want our students to experience digital flourishing. Digital well-being occurs on a spectrum and flourishing is when we use our devices in a way that maximizes the positives and minimizes the negatives. In other words, we are benefiting from all the great things that technology has to offer. Devices supplement and add to our lives but do not take away from us reaching our full potential.

View this week's Digital Well-being Challenge!

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The Digital Wellness Institute has developed a tool to help people understand the 8 dimensions of digital well-being and assess a person's individual device use strengths and areas of improvement.

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Discover personal areas of digital flourishing and challenges – take the Digital Flourishing survey!
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Weekly Well-being Challenges

Challenge 1: January 20-26

Talk to at least one new person this week, when waiting for a class or meeting to start, instead of looking at your phone.

The term “weak ties” is used to describe casual connections formed with acquaintances through daily life. Forming these connections can be easily overlooked, but creating weak ties helps build community and positively impacts your overall well-being. Although it can be a habit to check your messages or scroll on social media while waiting for classes or club meetings to begin, this week the challenge is to put your phone away and talk to someone sitting next to you instead. Use a simple opening like asking about a class, event, or compliment something about them.

Start forming those weak ties now and experience the benefits in the future.

For tips on how to start a conversation read or listen.