Digital Wellbeing: Finding Agency in a World of AI and Overwhelm

How can we disconnect to protect ourselves while still staying plugged in to avoid getting ‘left behind’? It feels like an impossible dilemma.

We're being told some powerful stories about how unhealthy we are right now: we're addicted to technology, emotionally hijacked by social media, helpless in the face of AI, and overdosing on screen time. Maybe these stories feel true, or at least partly true, but they're also narratives that disempower us, smack of 'learned helplessness', and let platforms off the hook.

The real concerns are there, like loneliness, stress, overwork, emotional blunting, cognitive exhaustion, and the decline of our cognitive capabilities. The framing of those concerns, though, matters a lot. Frame it one way, and we risk staying passive and feeling helpless. Frame it another, and we can find and use our agency again, forming healthier digital habits without feeling like we have to give up technology.

Elaine has spent two decades researching the psychology of our digital lives. In her keynotes, she explores the control we still possess, even in the face of ubiquitous tech and breakneck-pace change, and how we can use that agency to live better lives and achieve greater digital balance and wellness.

Elaine draws on cyberpsychology, contemplative practice, and her work as an author and consultant for this talk.

What does the Digital Wellbeing keynote cover?

• Competing narratives: The stories we're sold about both technology and ourselves, and whose interests they serve

• The limits of optimisation, productivity, and efficiency: Why it’s such a problem that machines are trying to be more like humans, and humans are trying to be more like machines

• Where agency lives: How we can live in the most workable zone, where we understand we’re not totally in control but refuse to surrender to helplessness

• Device mindfulness: Original mindfulness experiences that help audiences deepen awareness and agency in the face of technology, available as part of keynotes or as standalone workshops

Why book a keynote on digital wellbeing and human agency?

Elaine applies a unique lens that moves past debates about screen time and addiction to the deeper questions of what are we being sold and why we react to and deploy technology the way we do. How can we nurture critical thinking and reclaim greater freedom?

Audiences leave not with rules but with a different sense of what's possible. Elaine brings wit, rigour, and nuance to a topic that’s chronically oversimplified.

Who is the Digital Wellbeing keynote for?

Creative conferences, wellbeing and ideas festivals, digital-culture events, and organisations wanting a smarter take on digital wellbeing. This topic is available as a keynote or workshop, including the digital mindfulness activity experienced by attendees at the PolyOpportunity Berlin Salon and educators at Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools.

Why book Elaine to speak about digital wellbeing?

As a psychologist, coach, and cyberpsychologist, Elaine brings deep expertise in technology and human connection. For more insight before booking, read her perspectives on digital wellbeing and doomscrolling, or explore how technology affects us throughout the life span in her book Reset. You can also tune in to her podcast appearances, or experience her Device Mindfulness exercise for yourself.

What other keynotes can Elaine deliver?

The themes of Elaine’s Digital Wellbeing talk relate closely to her other topics of expertise and interest, on which she also offers keynotes.

AI is increasingly our companion at work - our assistant, our colleague, maybe even our boss. We’re constantly relating to others at work via technology, and our devices and connectivity means we can work from everywhere, all the time. We live in a society obsessed by productivity, efficiency, and optimisation. What wellbeing effects does this have? Have a look at Elaine’s AI at Work keynote.

Elaine is a world expert in digital afterlives, which have in some ways transformed our experience of grief and mourning and made us vulnerable to companies that ‘platformise’ the experience of grief. What does this mean for our wellbeing and psychological health? You can dive deeper on this subject with Elaine’s Digital Afterlife: Grief, Technology and AI keynote.

What does using AI companions or having AI relationships mean for our society, our psychology, and our individual and collective mental health? Think more about the relational contributions to our wellbeing in Elaine’s Online Companions and AI Relationships keynote.

Book Elaine through the Speaking Office

For enquiries contact
Andrew Hickman
The Speaking Office
+44 753 843 8455