Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age: How to feel better without logging off

Do you worry about tech addiction? Have you tried hiding your phone, or taking a digital detox, only to find it doesn’t work for very long? Get ready for a rethink. There’s a better way to create a tech-free life without having to shut everything down. Learn how to relax without feeling guilty about being online. It’s all about getting in touch with nature.

Dr Sue Thomas, former Professor of New Media with twenty-five years’ experience in internet research, explains how technology connects us to the natural world. Learn how to create a calmer, more balanced, lifestyle for you and your family. If you’re interested in unplugging, digital minimalism, or simply chilling out, this book is for you. Includes 50 practical tips to increase your digital wellbeing.

Howard Rheingold, US-based critic, writer and teacher, gave 5 stars to ’Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age’. He writes: ＂Humans are addicted to apps & devices engineered to attract & distract our attention, but we also are soothed by nature.We’re all conflicted about the amount of time we spend online, looking at our phones, and most people I know are increasingly ambivalent. So much of the critical writing about this dilemma is about weaning yourself, logging off. I like Thomas’ book because it strives for a middle ground -- how to appreciate the natural world as a kind of antidote to the techno-trance.＂

Sue Thomas’s most recent book is ’Nature and Wellbeing in the Digital Age’ (2017). Other titles include ’Technobiophilia: nature and cyberspace’ (2013), a study of nature metaphors in internet culture and language; the cyberspace memoir/travelogue ’Hello World: travels in virtuality’ (2004); the novels ’Correspondence’ (short-listed for the Arthur C Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel 1992, The James Tiptree Award, and the European Science Fiction Award) and ’Water’ (1994); an edited anthology ’Wild Women: Contemporary Short Stories By Women Celebrating Women’ (1994), and ’Creative Writing: A Handbook For Workshop Leaders’ (1995). She has written for a wide range of publications including The Guardian, Orion Magazine, Slate, and many others. She was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1951. Her first novel, Correspondence (1992), attracted wide attention in the UK, USA, and Europe. She founded the trAce Online Writing Centre at Nottingham Trent University in 1995, and became Professor of New Media at De Montfort University in 2005. Since 2013 she has been a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University and writes full-time.