How gratitude technology adapts to changing life needs
Beyond Counting Blessings: Tracing the Evolution of Gratitude Practices and Technology Needs
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Gratitude helps people feel better by reminding them of what they appreciate, but it doesn’t work the same way all the time. The authors studied 17 adults who used gratitude practices for 1 to 15 years to see how their feelings and needs changed over time. They found that people’s situations and emotions shape how and when gratitude feels helpful or forced. From this, the authors created a model that explains how people adjust their gratitude routines and activities as life changes. This work also suggests ways technology can better support gratitude in different life moments.
What this means in practice
- •For mobile app developers: Design gratitude apps that adjust prompts and features based on user emotional state and life changes over time for more personalized support.
- •For mental health platform teams: Integrate adaptive gratitude practices into well-being platforms to support users through different emotional and situational phases.
Authors
Qiuyue, Zhong, Jeongah Lee, Drishti Goel, Violeta J. Rodríguez, Dong Whi Yoo, Koustuv Saha, Ravi Karkar
Abstract
Gratitude technologies support well-being by prompting reflection on what people appreciate. But gratitude does not serve the same purpose in every circumstance: as life situations change, so does what people seek from it, and whether it feels appropriate at all. To understand how technology can adapt to and support such shifts, we conducted retrospective, artifact-elicitation interviews with 17 adults who had practiced gratitude for one to fifteen years. Participants' appraisals of their situations shaped what they needed, yielding six recurring practice patterns, including a boundary where gratitude felt forced. We contribute the Adaptive Gratitude Practice Model, which explains how appraisals shifted even within the same life situation, how participants adapted activities, modalities, and rhythms, lapsed under competing demands or emotional unreadiness, and resumed when gratitude again felt useful. Additionally, we derive design implications for situated support, self-understanding through past records, and relational care with changing life situations.