Beyond Meditation: Everyday Mindfulness and Technology Use

Abstract

Mindfulness, a practice of maintaining awareness by bringing attention to the present without judgment, has many mental and physical well-being benefits when practiced consistently. Many technologies have been invented to support mindfulness practice: mobile apps, web resources, virtual reality environments, and wearables. We present findings from a semi-structured interview study with 6 experienced mindfulness practitioners to understand their daily practice experiences and technologies they incorporate in their practice. Participants identify the benefits and challenges of developing long-term commitment to mindfulness practice, and combine informal mindfulness practice in their daily activities in addition to formal meditation. While conflicted about including and even relying on technology, they adopt and appropriate a range of technologies in their daily practice, some of which are not designed for mindfulness, such as productivity tools and media streaming. Based on our findings, we suggest that designers of mindfulness technologies be cautious about applying behavioral change design principles and go beyond meditation to better situate the tools in practitioners' existing daily routines.