Framing the mind: media, metaphors, and mindfulness

Mindfulness has been studied in media and communication research as an individual capacity for regulating attention, managing distraction, and critically engaging with content. This perspective paper introduces an alternative approach, one that recognizes that mindfulness is strongly influenced by environments, including media environments. Drawing on the environmental model of mindfulness, this paper examines how dominant metaphors of mind, especially container-based metaphors prevalent in and propagated by digital media, may unintentionally make mindfulness harder to achieve. Building on this insight, an expanded role for media literacy is proposed, one that includes awareness of the effects of language and metaphor on the capability for present-moment awareness. This perspective opens new avenues for research and design by illuminating how media environments can support, or unintentionally suppress, mindfulness.