Presentation at CHI 2026: "What is Digital Wellbeing?" — Honorable Mention
Today I presented our paper “What is Digital Wellbeing? A Leverage Points Framework to Guide Research and Action” at CHI 2026 in Barcelona, Spain, during the Digital Wellbeing Frameworks and Design Strategies session. The paper received an Honorable Mention Award — an honor given to the top 5% of submissions!
The paper, co-authored with Monica Molino and Luigi De Russis, addresses a fundamental challenge in HCI research: despite being widely discussed, digital wellbeing is often defined in inconsistent and fragmented ways across the literature. We tackle this by proposing a layered taxonomy that characterizes digital wellbeing across technology scope and users, mediators, and strategies.
Building on this foundation, we introduce the Leverage Points for Digital Wellbeing framework, inspired by systems thinking, which maps interventions across three levels of change:
- Self-oriented — individual-level strategies and tools
- Collective — community and social dynamics
- Systemic — broader regulatory and design-level interventions
The framework aims to offer an actionable conceptual model that better captures how people experience digital technologies over time — including emerging AI-mediated contexts — and how broader social and political conditions shape those experiences. Rather than treating digital wellbeing as a purely individual concern, the Leverage Points framework highlights the importance of multi-level approaches that combine personal agency with collective action and systemic change.
I also made an interactive version of the framework available here: Digital Wellbeing Leverage Points.
Below you can browse the slides from my presentation:
I’m grateful for the recognition and for the stimulating discussions during and after the session. It was a pleasure to share this work with the CHI community and to explore together how we can move toward a more holistic understanding of digital wellbeing.