‘I meditate because my mind has numerous tabs open’: Dis/connecting in Mindfulness Apps

In his introduction to an article about the human relationship to technology, self-proclaimed ‘personal growth’ expert Ross Stevenson asks: ‘Why are so many of us feeling more disconnected from the world and others than ever?’ As one potential answer to address this sensation of both disconnection and distraction, the concept of mindfulness has gained an increasing popularity in recent years – which in turn has led to a booming business for meditation apps. With offline experiences and analogue technologies in other contexts more and more infused with a longing for an imaginary of the past, this consequently raises the question: how are mindfulness apps themselves negotiating this ambivalence between digital technologization and analogue idealization? To draw out this tension, this chapter explores how three leading mindfulness and meditation apps – Calm, Headspace, and Meditopia – play with themes of (dis)connection in their advertisements. An inherent criticism of an increasingly technologized, urban lifestyle is addressed within these narratives by framing the app experience as natural, material and analogue – in other words, by arguing for a digital disconnection through technological connection.