Defining the Problem, Setting the Standard? Platform Narratives and Interventions for Digital Well-Being

Abstract

The concept of digital well-being has emerged from public concerns about the negative effects of online platforms on users. Researchers, online platforms, and non-profit organizations continue to debate what digital well-being encompasses and how it can be achieved. Beyond this, there remains a question of how online platforms conceptualize digital well-being and what interventions, if any, they offer in response. To answer these questions, we conducted thematic analysis and discourse analysis over a corpus of 170 publicly available documents that we collected from six major platform providers: Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, Snap, Amazon, and Google. Our analysis shows that (1) online platforms conceptualize digital well-being through the lens of usage quality. We argue that this conceptualization enables platforms to both contribute to well-being and pursue their profits. However, (2) there remains a gap between their conceptualizations and interventions. Drawing from our findings, we discuss the implications and paths forward for digital well-being design and governance.