Campus Meditation App

The university started offering a free meditation app to all students this semester. At first I thought it was just another wellness initiative that nobody would use, but the sign-up numbers they posted were surprising. Over 2,000 students registered in the first week. The app tracks streaks and lets you join group sessions with other people on campus. You know you are sitting in silence at the same time as someone in the dorm across the quad, which turns something private into a quiet kind of shared experience. It'sn't trying to be Headspace or any of the commercial apps because the sessions are shorter, usually 5 to 8 minutes. The interface is stripped down to basically just a timer and a breathing animation. It works, I think, because it feels like it belongs to this campus specifically, not to a company trying to sell a subscription.