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Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges

Jingjin Li, Jiajing Guo, Gilly Leshed

TL;DR

This study investigates live-stream meditation through a two-part qualitative approach combining a three-month autoethnography with 86 sessions and semi-structured interviews of ten meditation teachers. It reveals that live-stream meditation facilitates routine-building and peer connection despite weaker social presence than in-person sessions, while teachers use platforms to broaden reach and grow their brands. Key challenges include information gaps, distractions, anti-social behaviors, and donation dynamics, leading to design recommendations such as non-distracting modes, structured session information, journaling prompts, and a wellbeing-oriented ecosystem. The findings offer concrete guidance for designing live-stream tools that better support mindfulness practice and mental well-being, with implications for other self-practice domains beyond meditation.

Abstract

Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical well-being benefits. With the increased popularity of live stream technologies and the impact of COVID-19, many people have turned to live stream tools to participate in online meditation sessions. To better understand the practices, challenges, and opportunities in live-stream meditation, we conducted a three-month autoethnographic study, during which two researchers participated in live-stream meditation sessions as the audience. Then we conducted a follow-up semi-structured interview study with 10 experienced live meditation teachers who use different live-stream tools. We found that live meditation, although having a weaker social presence than in-person meditation, facilitates attendees in establishing a practice routine and connecting with other meditators. Teachers use live streams to deliver the meditation practice to the world which also enhances their practice and brand building. We identified the challenges of using live-stream tools for meditation from the perspectives of both audiences and teachers, and provided design recommendations to better utilize live meditation as a resource for mental wellbeing.

Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges

TL;DR

This study investigates live-stream meditation through a two-part qualitative approach combining a three-month autoethnography with 86 sessions and semi-structured interviews of ten meditation teachers. It reveals that live-stream meditation facilitates routine-building and peer connection despite weaker social presence than in-person sessions, while teachers use platforms to broaden reach and grow their brands. Key challenges include information gaps, distractions, anti-social behaviors, and donation dynamics, leading to design recommendations such as non-distracting modes, structured session information, journaling prompts, and a wellbeing-oriented ecosystem. The findings offer concrete guidance for designing live-stream tools that better support mindfulness practice and mental well-being, with implications for other self-practice domains beyond meditation.

Abstract

Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical well-being benefits. With the increased popularity of live stream technologies and the impact of COVID-19, many people have turned to live stream tools to participate in online meditation sessions. To better understand the practices, challenges, and opportunities in live-stream meditation, we conducted a three-month autoethnographic study, during which two researchers participated in live-stream meditation sessions as the audience. Then we conducted a follow-up semi-structured interview study with 10 experienced live meditation teachers who use different live-stream tools. We found that live meditation, although having a weaker social presence than in-person meditation, facilitates attendees in establishing a practice routine and connecting with other meditators. Teachers use live streams to deliver the meditation practice to the world which also enhances their practice and brand building. We identified the challenges of using live-stream tools for meditation from the perspectives of both audiences and teachers, and provided design recommendations to better utilize live meditation as a resource for mental wellbeing.
Paper Structure (60 sections, 3 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 60 sections, 3 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related work
  3. Mindfulness Practice and Supporting Technologies
  4. Live Streams for Informal Knowledge-Sharing and Companionship
  5. First-person Research Methods and Research Positionality
  6. Autoethnographic study: Method
  7. Live stream platforms
  8. Procedure
  9. Data analysis
  10. Autoethnographic Study: Findings
  11. Motivation to Attend Live Meditation
  12. Building a Routine of Self-care
  13. Taking a Mindful Break from Work
  14. Connecting with Other Meditators
  15. Low Cost of Attending Group Meditation
  16. ...and 45 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Two screenshots of Insight Timer live meditation. The left screenshot shows a list of available live meditation sessions. The right screenshot shows the interface during a live stream, with the components of donation, real-time video of the streamer, commenting, heart-sending, audience profile pictures, and a live count of attendees. The attendees' profile pictures have been replaced with copyright-free pictures for the purpose of anonymization.
  • Figure 2: Visualization of attended meditation sessions. (Session: Researchers took brief notes and screenshots. Journal: Researchers wrote structured journals following the prompts in the workbook.)
  • Figure 3: Design ideas for meditation live streams. A: Zen mode is off. The audience can send hearts or chats as they do in existing live stream platforms. B: Zen mode is on. Interaction features are disabled. C: Live events chat log as journal prompts. Users can review the live events they attended and the chat messages they sent before writing journal entries. Notes: Meditator photo in A and B by Benjamin Child on Unsplash. User names are randomly generated.