About The Lab

We explore how digital literacy, creativity, and curiosity can help people use technology with more confidence and make everyday life feel richer.

Learn About Our Research

The Good Life Lab

Technology Should Add Something to Life

Our phones and AI give us extraordinary access to information, ideas, and creative possibilities. They can help us learn something in seconds, find our way almost anywhere, or make things that once required specialized skills.

They can also absorb our attention without giving very much back.

The Good Life Lab is interested in the space between those two possibilities.

We explore how people can use technology more intentionally, not simply to spend more time on screens, but to become more curious about the world around them, try something creative, or connect with other people.

Sometimes the most useful thing a phone can do is help us discover something worth putting the phone down for.

That is why our work mixes digital literacy with imaginative workshops, creative challenges, sensory experiences, and unexpected ideas. We want people to understand their technology better while also discovering ways to use it that make everyday life more interesting and engaging.

Our research asks the same question from another direction: can the technologies blamed for making us more distracted, lonely, and absorbed in our screens actually help us become more curious, creative, connected, and engaged with the real world?

We don't assume the answer is yes.

We want to find out.

Technology should do more than hold our attention. At its best, it should help us find something worth paying attention to.

Our Core Belief

A Good Digital Life Should Still Feel Like a Good Life

Digital wellbeing is about more than cutting screen time. It’s also about understanding the technology around us, feeling confident enough to use it on our own terms, and making room for the things that give life depth: curiosity, creativity, meaningful experiences, and connection with other people.

The goal isn’t to reject technology or embrace every new tool. It’s to become better at noticing when technology is genuinely adding something to our lives, and when it’s simply taking up space.

Our People

Interdisciplinary Minds

Ethan de Winter

Ethan is a community development practitioner and researcher whose work brings together digital literacy, creativity, technology, and wellbeing. He is also a certified therapeutic arts facilitator and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) instructor. His current master’s research at Middlesex University explores how community-based learning and emerging technologies can support more connected and meaningful lives. He founded The Good Life Lab as a place to put those ideas into practice through community workshops, applied research, and public experiments exploring how AI and digital tools can contribute more to the people and communities using them.

Founder & Facilitator

Community Advisor

Amie Brochu, MSW, PhD

Amie is an educator and mental health social worker whose work focuses on helping people and communities build wellbeing and resilience. Her experience brings an important community and mental health perspective to The Good Life Lab's exploration of digital wellbeing and meaningful connection.

Rashmi Bhansal

Rashmi is a wellness practitioner and artist whose work brings together mindfulness, psychology and creative expression. Her perspective helps The Good Life Lab explore how creativity and more intentional attention can support wellbeing in an increasingly digital world.

Community Advisor

Matthew brings expertise in public health research, program evaluation and social prescribing. His guidance helps ensure our research uses credible methods, reflects diverse community perspectives and produces findings organizations can put into practice.

Matthew Liang

Community Advisor

Partner with The Good Life Lab

Bring a Digital Essentials or Possibilities workshop to your organization, workplace, or community. We help groups build digital confidence and share more useful, engaging ways to use AI and smartphones. We also welcome collaborations with community organizations, educators, and researchers interested in workshops or partnerships.