Connected Words, Shared Journeys: Understanding the Motivations, Practices, and Experiences of Individual and Collaborative Gratitude Journalling Users

Gratitude journalling (GJ) has become a popular tool for improving mental health and wellbeing. Mobile applications now facilitate such practices by offering prompts, reminders, and ways to document positive experiences. Some go further by introducing collaborative journalling, allowing users to share and reflect together. However, little is known about why users engage in or avoid such shared reflective practices, how they integrate them into daily life , and what impacts emerge. Through interviews with 14 Resilyou users, seven individual and seven collaborative, we explored their motivations, practices, and the dynamics of collaboration. Our findings show that collaborative users were motivated by social connection and mutual encouragement, which sustained their GJ through shared commitment and accountability. However, this reciprocity was double-edged, introducing emotional tension and the need to negotiate boundaries. We propose designing for reflective conversation by supporting users’ relational rhythms and fostering mutual empowerment rather than providing system-driven prompts.

Citation

A. Kaltenhauser, A. Preussner, M. Kocholl, J. Schoning, "Connected Words, Shared Journeys: Understanding the Motivations, Practices, and Experiences of Individual and Collaborative Gratitude Journalling Users," 2026, pp. 47-55.

Conference

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in the Alps

Keywords

46 Information and Computing Sciences, 4608 Human-Centred Computing, 3 Good Health and Well Being

Source

Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction in the Alps

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

DOI

10.1145/3780045.3780050

Additional links

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3780045.3780050