Digital Resilience, Health, and Harms: The Digital Convergence

This paper, a conference abstract from the Gam(bl)ing Conference 2026, argues that the growing convergence of digital technologies, gaming, gambling, social media, dating, and shopping applications, has created harms that existing research, typically divided by device or activity, does not adequately capture. Its central thesis is that "digital resilience," a framework extending beyond digital literacy to include user behaviour, health, and harms as well as the role of networks around the user such as family and health professionals, offers a more holistic and pragmatic approach than a narrow focus on specific addictions such as loot boxes or smartphone addiction.

The author draws on prior work with lived-experience participants reporting gambling-related harm, noting that in-game purchases and round-the-clock access to gambling can complicate recovery and that difficulties with one form of technology may transfer to others. The paper proposes a broader continuum of digital addiction grounded in shared features of behavioural addiction, such as preoccupation and narrow focus, and it notes that comorbidity between addictions further supports a wider framing. The argument is presented as theoretical rather than empirical, and it does not report new survey sizes, samples, or statistical findings.

The paper also positions digital resilience as useful for healthcare services and educational institutions that report encountering technology-related harms, and it suggests that the approach could inform stakeholder training. It is explicitly stated that this framework does not replace the need for stronger user protections from platforms and regulators, and it points to the PEGI loot box labelling as one regulatory development in the field. Overall, the abstract is a conceptual agenda-setting piece, aimed at guiding future research on the consequences of digital convergence for user wellbeing.