Advanced Digital Wellness
8th Grade, Unit 3 

Digital Spaces as Contested Ground: Reclaiming Attention in an Age of Distraction

This unit confronts the paradox of technology—a tool that both connects and fractures, that offers liberation while demanding surrender. Here, we examine the digital landscape not as an inevitable force, but as a designed ecosystem where attention is the currency, and young minds are the most coveted market. Students interrogate how their inner quiet—a space of reflection and autonomy—is systematically mined by platforms that profit from fragmentation. This is not about "better habits," but about *sovereignty*.  

We begin by naming what is often unspoken: that the adolescent brain is not "weak" to distraction, but *targeted* by architectures of addiction. Students explore how endless scrolls, notifications, and algorithmic feeds are not neutral features, but carefully engineered hooks that reshape identity, relationships, and even memory. The question shifts from *"How do I focus better?"* to *"What systems are invested in my inability to focus?"* Armed with this awareness, they map their own digital lives—not with shame, but with clarity—identifying where technology serves them and where it serves shareholders.  

But personal boundaries are not enough. True digital wellness is collective. Students investigate how online spaces replicate and amplify societal inequities: whose voices are amplified, whose are suppressed, and how silence itself is commodified (think: performative activism, curated vulnerability). They practice *mindful resistance*—designing content that disrupts attention economies rather than feeds them, cultivating online presence that prioritizes depth over dopamine. This is digital leadership: not just "positive use," but deliberate *reclamation* of virtual space as a site of agency rather than extraction.  

The unit culminates in a radical reimagining of "disconnection." Students design *technology ecosystems*—not rigid detoxes, but flexible structures that honor their need for both connection and solitude. Some might institute "sacred hours" for uninterrupted creation; others might reorganize digital environments to privilege intentionality over impulse. The goal is not abstinence, but *integration*: technology that bends to human needs, not the reverse.  

Key Transformations:

• Analyze digital design as a power structure, not a given reality.  

• Build personal protocols that anticipate exploitation, not just manage symptoms.  

• Redefine "digital leadership" as the deliberate shaping of online spaces toward justice and depth.  

• Replace guilt-driven detoxes with rhythms of *nourishing* disengagement—times when technology steps back so selfhood can expand.  

• Curate digital identities that reflect true multiplicity, not algorithmic flattening.  

This is preparation for high school, yes—but more urgently, it is preparation for citizenship. In a world where attention is the battleground, to choose where you lend yours is the first revolutionary act.