Sophia Berg, Digital Media Intern, English Department
“Just as mindfulness, wonder, and awe can open the mind and heart to adopting better approaches to digitally infused wellbeing, technology can become a tool to enhance mindfulness, creativity, wonder, and wellbeing.
"It’s reciprocal and cyclical.”
The opening lines to Caitlin Krause’s most recent book, Digital Wellbeing: Empowering Connection with Wonder and Imagination in the Age of AI, best encapsulate her elevated understanding of what it means to be human in the ever-evolving face of digital innovation. Published in September 2024, Digital Wellbeing explores the novel world we live in, where technology is so entangled with the everyday. How can we best function as humans when the digital world is encroaching on every aspect of our lives? As Krause writes on her webpage, she aims to encourage “leaders and teams to proactively navigate the complex relationships between technology, creativity, and human wellness.” With ChatGPT and artificial intelligence offshoots transforming the way we view the world – especially at the university setting, and the way we conduct ourselves in it – Krause sees a middle route between the holistic shunning of technological advances and the absolute embracing of digital submersion: the third space.
“You have our physical reality,” Krause explains, “you have digital applications, and then you have this beautiful space of imagination. I have been researching wonder and awe so much because, as an emotional resonance experience, it fires an amplitude equal to anger but – on the opposite side of the spectrum – it can move people into states of possibility and openness without imposing. It’s more invitational.”
When I sit down to speak with Krause about her new book, she tells me that her aspiration in studying digital wellbeing is opening up. “It’s a quality of open. A way of being,” she says, to help educators and students alike learn to live in a world that is irrevocably shifting by the second, imbued with the genius of technological innovation that has recently seemed to envelop reality. Krause encourages her readers to adapt to the rise of technology in the 21st century, to live in a third space that augments reality with digital technology. The possibilities that contemporary innovations yield are limitless, and the world is at a stage where tangible reality can merge with abstract reality.
From a young age, Krause was devoted to seeking the intersections between the worlds she knew. Although she fostered a passion for English in high school, Krause entered Duke University as a Naval ROTC student. Because she loves the humanities, she also enrolled in the Arts Focus program, simultaneously pursuing seemingly incongruent academic tracks. But Krause never had an issue with distinguishing between worlds that appear so separate. “My brain didn't see it as dissonant. It was just the categories of freedom of expression versus drilling in your uniform.” Eventually, Krause elected to turn down a position in the Navy to study computer programming along with her English degree, the overlap between computational methods and the humanistic disciplines fascinating her. “I wanted to be at the intersection, and finally I feel like the world is at that point where we can see that merge.”
But the English Department at Duke always held a special place in Krause’s heart, even in the decades after graduation. “The English classes I took were a core foundation of my studies at Duke,” Krause tells me as she looks back at her undergraduate transcript. “From my junior year taking Shakespeare After 1600, to taking poetry with Melissa Malouf, to one of my favorites, my courses with Victor Strandberg — the Duke English department gave me freedom in what I wanted to study.” Krause reminisces about the opportunities the English Department opened for her, especially in terms of the innumerable intellectual endeavors the study of English presents. “I felt like it was a brain gym; I ended up having a workout by the time I graduated,” Krause remarks. The humanistic disciplines force the mind to expand, propelling our thoughts to new realms of infinite possibilities, and although Krause discovered this while she pursued the study of English at Duke, she has employed it in every facet of her life ever since.
Now, Krause teaches at Stanford University in their Wellness Department: Stanford Living Education or SLED, for short. In her course, Digital Wellbeing: Healthy Relationships with Technology, she aims to teach digital wellbeing as one would “bead a necklace,” one charm at a time. One lesson, for instance, focuses on “building relationships online and what it means to have social connection in this day of social media.” Another lesson discusses the anxiety technology has thrust upon the student body. Another employs “experimental practices with psychology and journaling,” while others bring in guest lecturers to “talk about certain apps that help us establish healthy behavior patterns.” Krause strings a necklace that has students leaving her class at the semester’s end brimming with knowledge on how to not only survive, but flourish in this new age of AI. But her largest passion draws from the creative arts that inspired her work. “I love teaching, especially mentoring,” Krause reflects, “where I get to see people come away with their own creative freedom.”
And Krause continues to pursue this passion for education outside of the traditional classroom. Her first book, Mindful by Design, was written for educators who reported that they never engaged in wellbeing instruction in their classes. In Switzerland and Belgium, where Krause was living at the time, instructors would come to her saying, “I don't have time for mindfulness. I need to focus on my curriculum. I don't have time for social, emotional, wellbeing.” But Krause took issue with the very premise of this assertion, telling me, “We're not gonna thrive academically if we don't feel like we're welcome in a classroom. Wellbeing has to be primary. So I began to make tools for teachers.”
In the nearly six years since Mindful by Design’s release, Krause has also constructed an online forum for global education on digital wellbeing. Offering a four-week course on the topic, Leading with Digital Wellbeing, Krause has carefully crafted a curriculum catered toward anyone seeking to step up in this modern age and take control of their lives. “By the end of this course,” Krause’s platform promises, “you’ll have practical strategies for working with AI and new tools to build deeper connections and drive innovation in both your personal and professional life.” Her students video chat with her and each other, break off into small groups to conduct activities, and reflect on their own experiences in the workforce in the evolving world of digital technology. “I'm interested in guiding a process so that people who are leaders, designers, and creators have that kind of space with me,” Krause says. She describes her course as an innovative safe space for novel thinking and learning in the age of AI.
In this ever-changing world where artificial intelligence and revolutionary technological innovations, unthought of mere years ago, are rooted in status quo consumption, Krause believes that it is essential, more so now than ever, to cultivate humanistic studies. “Thinking about thinking, learning about learning, and the future of English as a study shouldn’t be sacrificed, because even our very word choice is based on semantic meaning and intention,” Krause observes. “Artificial intelligence tools might be able to function well in producing what sounds good, but without reflection, the intention is lost. A human has consciousness, embodied care, and ethics.”
Krause points me to the final chapter of Digital Wellbeing, where she artfully placed three quotes she finds vital to our contemporary understanding of the world:
“When you don’t name things anymore, you start seeing them.” – Alan Watts.
“Words are our weakest hold on the world.” – Alberto Rios.
“To name something truly is to lay bare what may be brutal or corrupt — or important or possible — and key to the work of changing the world is changing the way we can imagine it.” – Ursula K. Le Guin.
“The future of English — I feel like it's changing the way that we can imagine the world and thinking beyond what might be easier, more convenient,” Krause explains “I don't want some artificial intelligence to spit out the answer about how to think. I want to wrestle with ideas and come out the far side, having done the work, feeling that my mind is stronger for this. And when I need to collect metadata or perform analysis, then I can use digital tools to save me time and energy. But I'm still using my conscious brain, my understanding of other humans, to have meaningful, soulful interactions.”
Communication is what Krause believes to be our truest engagement with each other, our impenetrable reserve against the perceived onslaught of the digital world onto everyday life. “Our ability to understand each other means that we can then move together, that we can have action based on clarity. The future of language depends on this — people understanding each other…. If you're following your curiosity and if you're following some kind of intention, trust yourself. Stay true to your intentions and realize that the path is going to emerge.”
Caitlin Krause’s Digital Wellbeing is available for purchase both online and in bookstores near you. To learn more about Krause and her mission, visit her website at https://caitlinkrause.com/.