From Ancient Contemplative Practice to the App Store: Designing a Digital Container for Mindfulness
arXiv Preprint Archive – June 16, 2020
Source: arXiv
Summary
Digital mindfulness apps often miss the mark, reducing an ancient practice to simple stress relief. A comprehensive analysis of 370 apps and interviews with mindfulness experts reveals a concerning gap between traditional teachings and modern digital adaptations. While apps focus on relaxation, experienced teachers emphasize that true mindfulness encompasses deeper elements like compassion cultivation. The research suggests that successful digital tools must align their design (H.5.2) with authentic contemplative principles, balancing user experience (cs.HC) with traditional wisdom.
Abstract
Hundreds of popular mobile apps today market their ties to mindfulness. What activities do these apps support and what benefits do they claim? How do mindfulness teachers, as domain experts, view these apps? We first conduct an exploratory review of 370 mindfulness-related apps on Google Play, finding that mindfulness is presented primarily as a tool for relaxation and stress reduction. We then interviewed 15 U.S. mindfulness teachers from the therapeutic, Buddhist, and Yogic traditions about their perspectives on these apps. Teachers expressed concern that apps that introduce mindfulness only as a tool for relaxation neglect its full potential. We draw upon the experiences of these teachers to suggest design implications for linking mindfulness with further contemplative practices like the cultivation of compassion. Our findings speak to the importance of coherence in design: that the metaphors and mechanisms of a technology align with the underlying principles it follows.