Smartphone apps for spiritual wellness

Abstract

Smartphone applications (apps) to promote wellness constitute a burgeoning industry, part of broader societal developments in “digital wellness.” This paper examines the affordances and interaction styles in a selection of apps that support spiritual wellness, which is a foundational and scarcely acknowledged dimension of wellness. Spiritual wellness itself entails six dimensions: belief in an organizing force, connectedness, faith, compassion, meaning of life, and meaning of death. This paper surveys the smartphone applications currently available that support spiritual wellness and discusses how these apps relate to the six aspects of spiritual wellness, discussing one application in depth for each aspect. In all, the surveyed apps employ a small set of interaction styles, including: timers, notifiers, card decks, and journals. This framework contributes to our understanding of the space of spiritual digital wellness applications. Opportunities for further development and engagement in each aspect are discussed.

Keywords

• digital wellness
• spiritual wellness
• smartphones
• apps
• human computer interaction