Bringing digital well-being into the heart of digital media literacies

The complexities of our digital media landscape present challenges that often strain the physical, emotional, and social well-being of learners and educators alike. Given these challenges, this essay makes a case for incorporating digital well-being into digital and media literacy curricula and pedagogy. For the author, a focus on digital well-being, or the capacity to pursue health, safety, and happiness online, has sparked a shift in pedagogical values and goals. Following a discussion of the nature of digital well-being, the author charts this shift through an example lesson about online identity. Bringing digital well-being into the heart of digital media literacies means reconsidering both the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of our teaching.