Digital Wellbeing Events
Throughout the year, we’ll host special unplugged events and challenges to help you disconnect from your devices and reconnect IRL.
Some past events include mindfulness, meditation, and self-compassion workshops; activities such as yoga and pickleball; crafts including button-making and Zines; digital detox spaces such as Chapel Unplugged; and an apps fair featuring curated wellbeing apps.
Get Unplugged!
Visit these tech-free zones to give your phone a rest and recharge your mind with crafts, coloring, conversation, and more:
Worcester Unplugged
Worcester Commons, Rm 155
Mondays | 4:00–7:00 p.m.
Digital Wellbeing Challenges
What feels fun and useful about your tech use and what would you like to change? Try these two weeks of challenges on your own or with friends.
- NoSo Lunch: No social media during lunch.
- 15BB: Put away the phone 15 minutes before bed.
- Social 60: Limit social media to 60 minutes each day. Try Social 30, too.
- Always Charging: Set up a central charging place and leave your phone there when you get home.
- Try ‘Batching’ : Rather than checking messages, social media and email all day long, set two or three specific times to handle them all at once.
- Phone-Free Saturday or Sunday: Set aside one day each week to separate physically from your phone. If you get a call, you’ll hear it ring and can see who it is, in case there’s an emergency.
- Create your own Challenge: What would you like to change about your digital habits? Set a goal with a deadline to do that.
- Notifications—Not: Turn off the notifications on phone and other devices
- Wait When you Wake: Wait to pick up your phone until you have eaten or prepared to leave your room.
- Choose a Goal—Set a Deadline: Set a goal to do something before you know how. With a deadline looming, your spare time fills with preparation and practice; you can’t afford to scroll.
- Reverse Your Streak: Use an app to gamify how long you don’t use your phone.
- Old-School Alarm: Get a stand-alone alarm clock and charge your phone out of your bedroom or out of reach at night.
- No Phone Socials: Host/attend social gatherings where all are required to hand over phones and socialize without devices.
- Create your own Challenge: What would you like to change about your digital habits? Set a goal with a deadline to do that.
Digital Wellbeing Teaching Resources
Explore these lesson plans and handouts for use in the classroom or on your own.
Apps for Wellbeing
Welltrack Boost (a subscription app free to UMass Amherst students)