Behind The Scenes: An Interview With Nina Hersher, Best-Selling Author Of Digital Wellness: Your Playbook For Thriving In The Remote Work Era

Nina Claire Hersher is an American speaker, author, and educator known for her stuttering activism and advocacy of digital wellness. Hersher’s disfluency in youth was integral to her professional journey as a reporter for Voice of America,  explains “for Hersher, the fight against screen time was personal. Struggling with a stutter as a child, she relied on eye contact to let people know she was trying to communicate.” Seeing a dropoff in eye contact and presence as mobile phones became prevalent was formative to Hersher’s professional journey and education.

She holds a master’s degree in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis with an individualized degree in Digital Culture and Program Development. She has extensively researched norms on connectivity in the 21st century and how technology is re-conceptualizing human development. 

Along with this, she is also a certified Oasis in the Overwhelm Facilitator and meditation teacher. Her background in mental health and wellness programming led to her specialization in digital wellness consulting and coaching. Talking about the fundamentals of digital wellness, Nina explains, “Digital Wellness is a topic addressing the intersection of technology and mental health. Because this is such a new field, we have a collective, ethical responsibility to research it, documenting everything from presenting problems to proposed solutions.”

Taking her cause further, she co-founded Digital Wellness Collective in 2018, the only global trade association for digital wellness professionals where developers and educators alike could collaborate and amplify each other’s voices.  As digital wellbeing education evolved and became standardized, the Digital Wellness Collective transformed into The Digital Wellness Institute where she serves as Chief Learning Officer.Her leadership brought to life the first nationally accredited ‘Certified Digital Wellness Educator’ program, an official impact partnership with the 2-time Emmy award-winning documentary, The Social Dilemma.

Nina Hersher didn’t stop here. She also co-authored a bestselling book titled ‘Digital Wellness: Your Playbook for Thriving in the Remote Work Era’, to help people balance their lives and become more focused. “The shift to remote and hybrid work has accelerated interest in optimizing digital habits. 83 percent of employees are looking to employers to help them find a better balance. This statistic is not surprising given the 300% increase in people searching ‘how to get my brain to focus’ over the last year,” shares the Digital Wellness expert, adding that this was the reason behind writing this Digital Wellness Playbook. “I wanted to provide people with actionable, research-based guidance to support their employees’ well-being in a fast-paced, digital culture.  . The  playbook includes actionable strategies for your employees, teams, and family members to optimize their digital wellness and bring intention to their attention” she elaborates.

With her skills and expertise, Nina is helping people achieve digital wellness: the optimum state of health and well-being each individual using technology is capable of achieving. She stresses that due to COVID-19, the prevalence of isolation and remote work has highlighted the need to integrate how mental health intersects with our digital habits. “As this revolution in work and life evolves, so must our terminology, practices, and intentions for living in a fast-paced world,” she says. From compulsive device usage to FOMO, nomophobia, and technology-based insomnia, everyone has a different entry point to the topic of digital wellness – or in other words – causing them to explore what mental health and wellness mean. While some may have seen overly plugged-in children and have had worries about gaming addiction, others may have personally experienced depression, distraction, and a loss of productivity with doomscrolling. This is where she comes in and provides updated frameworks to lead a balanced life in today’s digital world without compromising one’s  mental health.

When asked about her mantra , Nina responded, “My mantra is to promote a healthy-tech approach instead of an anti-tech approach to wellness in the digital era. I teach people to use technology in a way that fuels them instead of fatigues them She continues, “I love giving people the language and frameworks to normalize what they have been experiencing and looking for. In other words, giving voice to  common challenges of the digital era and focusing on the path forward, the opportunities to reclaim their peace of mind, and the solutions that will unite all of us to assess and address digital wellness.”

Additionally, through her work with Digital Wellness Day, Nina has reached over  7.5 million people across 36 countries. Her work has been featured in publications including Forbes, The Stanford Social Innovation Review, Al Jazeera, and Voice of America. She has also presented internationally at corporations, retreat centers, and conferences ranging  from Wisdom 2.0, to Spotify, Dolby, and The King Abdulaziz Center.

When asked about habit change and devices, Nina Hersher says she supports activities that naturally encourage people to  unplug self-care. She herself enjoys horseback riding and pottery as these allow her to connect with the natural rhythms of the world. She believes there are so many people experiencing digital overwhelm who want to do that to reclaim their peace of mind, but without proper training and tools, they lack the skill. With her keynotes, courses and workshops, Nina equips people with the tools to assess and embody digital wellness. .