Digital Wellness Resources

Tools, voices, and research for a healthier relationship with technology.

Not ready to start a program? That's fine. Here are the apps, books, podcasts, and thought leaders we trust — plus our own published work — to help you think more clearly about your digital habits.

Curated resources

What we recommend

These are the tools, people, and organizations we find ourselves returning to and recommending to clients.

Apps & Tools

Forest

Plant a virtual tree while you focus — if you leave the app, it dies. Simple, effective, slightly guilt-inducing in the best way.

RescueTime

Automatic time tracking with detailed reports on your digital habits. Hard to argue with the data when you see it.

Opal

App blocker that actually holds firm. Good for those who need an external commitment device while building internal skills.

Research & Think Tanks

Digital Wellness Lab — Boston Children's Hospital

One of the world's leading research centers on digital media and young people. Where the evidence actually comes from.

Center for Humane Technology

Nonprofit dedicated to ensuring technology actually serves humanity. Founded by former tech insiders who saw how the sausage was made.

Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI)

Global nonprofit working to make the online world safer for kids and families. Publisher of Scroll By Choice's Digital Wellness Trampoline framework.

Thought Leaders

Cal Newport

Author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism. Writes about focus, attention, and the case for a slower, more intentional digital life.

Nir Eyal

Author of Indistractable. Studies how digital products are designed to capture attention — and how to build systems that fight back.

Jonathan Haidt

Social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation. His research on smartphones and adolescent mental health is essential reading.

Gloria Mark

UC Irvine researcher on attention, multitasking, and interruptions. Her work on the cost of task-switching will change how you think about notifications.

Sherry Turkle

MIT researcher on human-technology relationships. Her book Alone Together was ahead of its time by about a decade.

Jenny Odell

Author of How to Do Nothing. Explores attention, resistance, and what we lose when we surrender every idle moment to a screen.

Books

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport — the case for intentionally choosing a small number of digital tools that support what matters most, then happily missing out on everything else.

Indistractable

Nir Eyal — practical, evidence-based strategies for controlling your attention and choosing your life. Less guilt, more structure.

How to Do Nothing

Jenny Odell — a meditation on attention, place, and what it means to resist the attention economy without retreating from the world entirely.

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt — how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Essential reading for any parent or school leader.

Podcasts & Media

Digital Minimalism — Cal Newport

Conversations about balancing technology and life. Good entry point if you're new to the topic and want something listenable.

NPR's Body Electric

Thoughtful, reported episodes on human-tech interaction. Covers everything from doomscrolling to how smartphones are reshaping the body.

Left to Their Own Devices

We handed kids the most powerful technology in history. Then we walked away. This is what happened next. Essential listening for parents.

For Organizations

SHRM Employee Wellbeing

The Society for Human Resource Management's resources on employee wellbeing — including digital wellness and burnout prevention.

Gallup — Workplace Engagement Research

The data on employee disengagement that underpins the business case for digital wellness programs. The numbers are sobering.

The Inspired Internet Pledge

Boston Children's Hospital initiative bringing together organizations committed to building a healthier internet. Scroll By Choice is a proud pledge advisor.

Have a resource we should add? We're always looking for credible tools, research, and voices in the digital wellness space.

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