Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

This paper makes concrete the challenges and opportunities to youth well-being that arise from using digital media. It begins with an overview of the concept of well-being and advances a holistic model that includes important influences (e.g., digital media, technological gadgets, mobile access). Emerging technologies have the potential to both support and challenge youth well-being. The data is taken from my SSRHC funded project Young Lives and Digital Media over Time and Place and draws on the themes arising from 66 Canadian youth who discussed nuanced, contradictory, and complex influences in their lives. They describe opportunities and risks across seven domains of well-being (health, relatedness, equity, education/work, engagement, affordable living, and space/environment). They provided insight and direction on the need for a new domain relating to “digital lives” and including themes of managing tensions/pressures of online lives, balancing daily use to better effect, and navigating the ubiquity and speed of shifting digital ecologies. The young people spoke about how often they use digital media, how it has affected social interactions and emotions, as well as problems with distraction, attention and violence. They also spoke about the physical effects such that they are less active and losing the joys of nature and physical movement. The papers offers a holistic model of youth well-being for the digital age that takes into consideration nuanced ways in which these young people experience and navigate online terrains.