tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/quantified-self-17353/articlesQuantified self – The Conversation2024-01-01T14:50:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169792024-01-01T14:50:37Z2024-01-01T14:50:37ZWhy some amateur athletes are giving up on smartwatches<p>Measuring the number of steps you take every day; tracking your heart rate, your pace or average ascent while jogging; memorizing the total distance you cycle over the course of a year and sharing it with an online community. These practices have become commonplace in the world of sport, even for amateurs.</p>
<p>This digitization of physical activity is unfolding against the backdrop of a global proliferation of self-quantification tools used to measure productivity at work, track <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444817698478">calorie intake</a>, <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/snyderlab/news/May-24-20211.html">blood sugar levels</a> and weight, monitor <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37461799/">sleep regulation</a> and more.</p>
<p>The market for these tools in sports activities, alone, is both <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Quantified+Self-p-9781509500598">lucrative and competitive</a>. As Finnish researchers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373143547_Running_free_recreational_runners%27_reasons_for_non-use_of_digital_sports_technology">Pekka Mertala and Lauri Palsa</a> report, the digital sports technology business is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year, with more than 10,000 portable digital devices for running, alone. Some 90 per cent of amateur runners now use a smartwatch or mobile application.</p>
<p>Tracking your body with numbers is associated with a series of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016821002210">promises</a> to become more active, happy and healthy, and with the concept of empowerment. Because of its objectivity and transparency (compared with the approximate nature of bodily sensations), this knowledge is considered to be the foundation of a <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70982364.pdf">personal self-optimization project</a>.</p>
<p>These embedded devices are also used for motivational support, to encourage regularity and assiduity and to put an end to lifestyle habits that are deemed unhealthy. Becoming part of a community of exercisers can also increase motivation by interweaving systems of mutual encouragement and competition.</p>
<p>Yet we are currently seeing a slowdown in this market linked to a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360361258_Why_Do_People_Abandon_Activity_Trackers_The_Role_of_User_Diversity_in_Discontinued_Use">massive phenomenon of either discontinuing the use of digital devices</a> or, at the very least, using them for short periods.</p>
<h2>The discontinuation of connected devices</h2>
<p>First of all, we should recall that the adoption of connected devices for sports is <a href="https://www.credoc.fr/publications/barometre-du-numerique-2019">not evenly distributed across the population</a>. It is over-represented among men who are urban, highly educated, socially advantaged and physically active. In addition, the 30-39 age group is the most equipped with <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-reseaux-2019-4-page-119.htm">smart bracelets and smartwatches</a>.</p>
<p>While certain population groups have less access to these embedded technologies, others who have acquired them will stop using them, usually after a limited period of use. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16138171.2021.1918896">The mechanisms that lead to this are extremely varied</a>, and include logistical overload, the time-consuming dimension of transferring and interpreting data, a lack of accuracy and reliability in data collection, and difficulty in interpreting and using data, among others.</p>
<p>We believe that the rejection of these devices may be the result of a <a href="https://www.implications-philosophiques.org/lauto-quantification-de-son-activite-sportive-altere-t-elle-la-qualite-de-lexperience-vecue-un-scenario-possible-de-labandon-massif-des-pratiques-de-self-tracking/">deterioration in the quality of the experience of a sport</a> when using them. For some participants, putting numbers on an activity actually <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26570266">leads them to experience it more as forced labour than as free, self-determined leisure</a>.</p>
<p>Intrinsic motivation (the pleasure of running for its own sake) then tends to be supplanted by extrinsic motivation (rewards, comparisons, mutual monitoring). The context of a constant call to excel can lead to an anticipated fear of failure, as well as a feeling of shame and guilt in the event of underperformance. Cognitive overload and distracted attention can also lead to a <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-corps-2016-1-page-115.htm">disconnect from the here-and-now of one’s activity and the bodily sensations related to it</a>.</p>
<p>Looking at it differently, the withdrawal of the smartwatch could be an act of resistance with strong political, philosophical or even spiritual significance. This may be a desire to break away from what is perceived as a generalized surveillance system, to <a href="https://theconversation.com/sport-comment-les-reseaux-sociaux-transforment-les-pratiques-des-jeunes-207440">emancipate oneself from the pressure of sports social networks</a>, to reject a materialistic race to over equip or even to <a href="https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a36959570/running-without-any-technology/">put the emphasis back on bodily sensations in sports training</a>.</p>
<p>The attitude of rejection can be linked to <a href="https://aoc.media/analyse/2023/01/23/sobrietes-sportives-choisies/">the emergence of minimalist values</a> such as sobriety, voluntary simplicity and frugality. It’s a question of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373143547_Running_free_recreational_runners'_reasons_for_non-use_of_digital_sports_technology">rediscovering a form of lost freedom</a>, of lightness, or even of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/ASJ/Acceleration_and_Resonance.pdf">resonance</a>.</p>
<h2>The adherence to quantification tools</h2>
<p>Not all amateur runners who have started using a digital self-quantification tool have stopped using it. While dropping the tools is a significant and explainable phenomenon, the reasons for sticking to them must also be considered. What are the conditions that enable amateur runners to continue practising and quantifying their performance numerically while deriving pleasure and well-being from the activity?</p>
<p>We showed that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366028928_Quelles_experiences_intimes_et_pratiques_effectives_de_la_course_a_pied_quantifiee_Etude_des_usages_ordinaires_des_montres_connectees_chez_des_coureurs_et_coureuses_amateures_a_partir_d%27une_auto-expli">the amateur runners who persevered in using digital tools were the ones who had developed a high level of expertise in self-quantification</a>. More specifically, they managed to cobble together and incorporate a series of tactics, or even <a href="https://www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/Folio/Folio-essais/L-invention-du-quotidien">“everyday tricks,”</a> to use Michel de Certeau’s expression, which enabled them to interact with their digital device without altering the quality of their sporting experience.</p>
<p>A first approach in this is to differentiate and alternate the uses of the smartwatch over time. To begin with, they modulate the intensity and types of usage of the tool to adapt to changing life conditions (for example, by suspending the goal to exceed performance levels during a year when family life is demanding). They also learn to let go of certain areas of quantification (sleep, for example) in order to focus their efforts exclusively on running.</p>
<p>When it comes to the training cycle, these runners <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159676X.2023.2225516">differentiate their modes of interaction with the tool</a> (frequency of consulting the tool, nature of the data collected) according to the type of training session they are engaged in. For example, they reserve intensive use of the smartwatch for interval training sessions but only consult it occasionally during recovery runs, marathon pace workouts or technical sessions. Finally, during a given running session, the runners target certain key moments when they consult their watch. Others never look at the watch during their run but only afterwards, or the other way around.</p>
<p>A second tactic consists of agreeing to adjust, revise or even abandon goals along the way, depending on a runner’s perceived state of fitness and/or environmental conditions. <a href="https://www.consumerreports.org/health/exercise-fitness/do-you-really-need-10000-steps-a-day-a1058474912/#:%7E:text=Perhaps%20you%27ve%20heard%20that,and%20still%20get%20serious%20benefits">This flexibility</a> reflects the development of a relationship of self-care and benevolence towards oneself.</p>
<p>Finally, a third everyday tactic leads amateur runners to take systematic care to put into context what they consider to be counter-performances. Far from considering the figures only in their raw form, they use them to understand the mechanisms underlying the process of producing counter-performance (bad night, professional stress, etc.).</p>
<h2>The nature of the attachment to the device</h2>
<p>We wanted to gain a better understanding of the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373196405_Understanding_the_lived_experience_of_self-tracking_among_runners_by_taking_off_their_digital_watch_The_imposed_withdrawal_as_a_methodological_tool_for_approaching_the_embodiment_of_the_digital_techno">connection runners formed with their digital tracking device</a>. To do this, we asked them to take it off for a single running session, while describing in real time, using a Dictaphone, how they felt. This change, which was out of the ordinary for most of them, turned out to be particularly destabilizing and revealed how <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448221083992">deeply incorporated their use of, and attachment to the tool was</a>.</p>
<p>All the subjects we studied initially admitted to being very apprehensive about the idea of running without their watch. They tried to deal with it in different ways: by postponing the outing; by running on a course that they had just completed with the watch, so as to use numerical reference points; by using the Dictaphone to estimate the duration and pace of the run; and, finally, by hiding a watch in a backpack to be able to record the amount of running they had done. </p>
<p>Most of the participants then felt a motivational void caused by the absence of the watch, which, when worn, functioned as an incentive to perform and a way to challenge themselves. They felt that the session without the watch was longer, harder, more painful and even pointless: why push yourself if you don’t know the exact result and it’s neither recorded nor stored?</p>
<p>The runners also noted that the simple fact of wearing the watch prompted them to over-focus attention on numbers to the detriment of their running technique, the external environment or their bodily sensations.</p>
<p>The absence of the watch was also seen by some as physically destabilizing. Deprived of their tool, the runners felt naked, unbalanced and asymmetrical and more often than not, they were unable to inhibit the reflex gesture of consulting it – proof that the object and movement associated with using it had been assimilated into the runner’s bodily habits. Lastly, some of them found it extremely difficult to regulate their running and reliably estimate common variables such as length, distance, speed and heart rate.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there’s nothing spontaneous, magical or automatic about interacting with your quantification device in a functional way. It has to be learned and built patiently. <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/ejrieps/7754">Physical and sports education in schools must adopt a training role in this field</a>, as digitalization is becoming unavoidable in the <a href="https://boutique.territorial.fr/sport-et-numerique-option.html">world of sports</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216979/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthieu Quidu received funding from the University of Lyon 1 for a research project entitled, "In search of sobriety: sociological insights into the emergence of minimalist sporting practices."</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brice Favier-Ambrosini received funding from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et Culture (FRQSC) for a project entitled "Identifying the essential, eliminating the rest," an analysis of the trend towards minimalism in the consumption of sports leisure activities.
</span></em></p>To better measure their activity and become members of a sports community, many amateur athletes are adopting smartwatches and digital tools. But others are giving them up.Matthieu Quidu, Maître de conférences en sociologie du sport, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1Brice Favier-Ambrosini, Professor, Educational sciences, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1309142020-02-18T18:01:06Z2020-02-18T18:01:06ZThe risks of algorithmic (il)literacy on healthcare platforms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315074/original/file-20200212-61958-1a8eoh1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C3631&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Going for a run... with big data.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/asian-woman-ultramarathon-runner-set-sports-1482370955">De lzf/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The use of wearable technologies, mobile health applications and online health platforms is <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190621005131/en/Global-Wearable-Technology-Market-Growth-Trends-Forecasts">on the rise</a>, allowing us to track and share our health data, and engage in online discussion forums to ask about health-related questions. The wealth of data in theory allows us to manage our health more effectively and be better equipped when we visit the doctor. Such tools can also act as a new source of knowledge legitimacy, integrating “layman” input and enabling patient access to and control of information. While patient access to secrecy of the healthcare system and its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/technology/the-healing-power-of-your-own-medical-data.html">proprietary power</a> on patient data, is increasing and demonstrating the potential to have healing powers for patients despite privacy and security concerns.</p>
<p>According to the Pew Research Center, more and more people are seeking health-related information online. In the United States, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077086/t/more-people-search-health-online">93 million people do so every day</a>, and among them, 55% seek information related to their medical condition prior to visiting the doctor. Digital platforms such as PatientsLikeMe, MedHelp and MyHealthTeams offer the potential to change the power dynamics that have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrylibert/2017/01/04/digital-platforms-are-the-key-to-improving-health/">long characterized the healthcare sector</a>, bringing the focus back on the patient. Indeed, traditional medical research with its scientific rigour is shifting from control by researchers to the one that crowdsources patient needs.</p>
<p>One of the online health platforms, PatientsLikeMe (PLM), brings together a community of diverse stakeholders – patients, doctors, caregivers, researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and the government – for collaboration for big data generation and medical research. The platform currently engages more than 600,000 members worldwide. Patients on PLM have generated <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/09/02/michael-gill-patient-data-for-sale/">43 million data points to date</a>. Patients with life-changing diseases or conditions, including multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and ALS, openly share their data such as the medications they use and their side effects, lifestyle modifications, and diagnostic and prognostic disease information.</p>
<p>The company then pools and aggregates this patient-generated data for research, and analyses and visualises it with algorithmic tools. The data are sold to institutions and partner companies for medical research. Based on any new treatments developed, patients have the opportunity to modify their behaviours and better manage their health. Patients also share their data with their physicians, creating new forms of interaction between patients and doctors in clinical settings, and increasing patient access to clinical trials. On its website, PLM asserts that it seeks to use artificial intelligence and other tools to <a href="https://www.patientslikeme.com/about">“democratise learning”</a> about health and medicine.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2019/09/30/artificial-intelligence-is-being-used-to-diagnose-disease-and-design-new-drugs/">AI health-care applications</a> are being used for diagnostic and treatment purposes, designing new drugs and treatments, as well as supporting patients in their health decision making.</p>
<h2>The risks of data illiteracy</h2>
<p>Despite the promise of these platforms, increased stakeholder inclusiveness is essential for greater transparency in how our health data is shared with and used by others. As empowering and utopic as these technologies and platforms seem, one cannot help but think about the expert versus layman divide. In other words, how expert are patients to provide input on their health data as well as interpret data provided to them? In a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0276146708325385">2008 article in the <em>Journal of Macromarketing</em></a>, I drew attention to the issue of new media literacy and its empowering potential – and also the need for expertise to be able to use and benefit from these technologies.</p>
<p>In the case of today’s online health-tracking platforms, patients who are not sufficiently literate to use the tools and describe their symptoms will not be able to reap the benefits. In addition, when we talk about data literacy, we do not only need cognitive and technical skills but also the ability to act on this data to manage our health. Hence, social challenge of big data algorithms emerges, as human judgment is required to make sense of it and act on it (<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1199721">Gillespie, 2017</a>; <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/the-data-revolution/book242780#preview">Kitchin, 2014</a>). Such actions may also impact others’ health – for example, a person could strive to track the mood swings of a friend, partner or family member, reminding her or him to, say, take medication. Although these self-tracking tools have significant potential, their use shifts responsibility to individuals, not only for their own health but also for others.</p>
<p>In addition, when corporations design tracking tools, they may not be able to capture all the aspects of patient experience, nor – most importantly – understand the language of the patient in describing his/her experiences (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2015.998108">Tempini, 2015</a>). Consequently, patient and corporate illiteracy become the main contributors to the digital divide that hinders the capability to report, analyse and make sense of data, and manage our and others’ health accordingly.</p>
<h2>Knowing too much</h2>
<p>But what happens when patients are <em>too</em> literate as they track and report their data? Indeed, the risk for data manipulation exists, to have the right profile to make specific demands that cater to their own interests, which may then yield results that lead to unsuccessful treatments. This is alarming as platforms such as PLM engage in patient-generated medical research in partnership with pharmaceutical and research institutions.</p>
<p>Being too literate to manipulate data or not literate enough to provide the necessary data may obstruct the medical knowledge generation process. Patients with scientific skills could manipulate data that poses privacy and security challenges such as <a href="https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/using-patient-data-to-democratize-medical-discovery/">job security, and insurance and criminal concerns</a>. Furthermore, such risk is carried to patient-physician knowledge exchanges in clinical settings, as patients share their self-tracked data with their physicians. Although online health platforms create predictive data modelling that allows tracking of each reported change in drug use and symptoms, accuracy of such data models remains a concern.</p>
<p>As we are mesmerised by talk of openness, transparency, personalisation, and empowerment, we often overlook the detrimental effects of such discourses on control and information asymmetry. Online health platforms as new data intermediaries control the flow and manipulation of data (Gillespie, 2017; <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/">Zuboff, 2019</a>), serving as gatekeepers of big data generation and distribution. Zuboff (<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/jit.2015.5">2015</a>, 2019) adamantly expresses the dangers of big data in the age of surveillance capitalism and how it constitutes the “big other” via indecipherable mechanisms of extraction, commodification, and control that exile people from their own behaviours and create seemingly non-democratic new markets. </p>
<p>Critical questions remain concerning the (mis)use of self-tracking tools as well as ethical and privacy issues. These include how the patient-generated data are being stored and used by third parties, who owns and controls the data, and to what extent patients should have a voice in the use, reuse and sale of their data.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130914/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Handan Vicdan ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The use of online health platforms is on the rise, allowing us to track and share our personal data. While such platforms have promise, significant scientific, ethical and privacy questions remains.Handan Vicdan, Associate professor of marketing, EM Lyon Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1182352019-06-13T12:42:07Z2019-06-13T12:42:07ZFor some, self-tracking means more than self-help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278405/original/file-20190606-97989-8c4iw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What does all that data mean to you?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-runner-looking-her-mobile-smart-474486460?src=N_FpbWv4dq80BUhE3wMu6A-1-5">Andrey_Popov/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People who identify with the “<a href="https://quantifiedself.com/">Quantified Self movement</a>” are, as expressed in the movement’s motto, seeking “self-knowledge through self-tracking.” They want to know how to sleep better, stay fit or have a more productive morning. They do this by keeping count of how many times they roll over in the night, how many steps they take in the day or how many emails they respond to in a week.</p>
<p>At their informal gatherings, known as “Show & Tells,” participants speak to three questions: What did you do? How did you do it? And what did you learn?</p>
<p>At the inaugural Quantified Self Show & Tell, in Pacifica, California, in 2008, the first presenter was unsure about what he had learned. <a href="https://quantifiedself.com/blog/but-why/">As Quantified Self co-founder Gary Wolf wrote</a> on the following day, the presenter “had a beautiful graph of his work, sleep and other activity, based on data he had been tracking for three years. And he was at the meeting to get ideas about how to extract more meaning out of it.”</p>
<h2>The psychology of self-tracking</h2>
<p>“Meaning” can mean a few things. </p>
<p>Among those at the first Show & Tell, there was a focus on utility: how to make the data meaningful toward some useful end.</p>
<p>But, for some, the practice of self-tracking is compelling in and of itself. As Wolf himself confessed, “The utility of self-tracking in achieving some specified goal doesn’t fully explain its fascination. There’s a compulsion, a curiosity, that seems to operate in advance of any particular use.”</p>
<p>In <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/hacking-life">my research on life hackers</a>, I’ve seen evidence of this thinking, which psychologists speak of as the systematic – or rational or analytical – cognitive style. That’s a disposition in thinking and behavior that seeks patterns and makes use of rules.
Studies have found an association between the rational style and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1007/BF02940938">computer students</a> and <a href="http://www.cybercrimejournal.com/michaelbacchmaan2010ijcc.pdf">hackers</a>.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, patterns, systems and rules are central to the life hacking ethos, independent of any utility – and sometimes contrary to it, as when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/05/life-hacking-why-self-optimising-can-be-suboptimal">life hackers naively optimize dating yet remain single</a>.</p>
<h1>The efficacy of self-tracking</h1>
<p>There can be benefits in tracking a facet of your life, even if you are not the quantifying type.</p>
<p>There’s abundant evidence that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001953">self-tracking can help ordinary people</a> manage their eating, steps taken, insulin levels and fertility.</p>
<p>Self-tracking can also be distracting and anxiety-making. For example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-many-women-tracking-their-fertility-can-be-an-emotional-whirlwind-106439">one study showed that fertility-tracking</a> can make women feel burdened, obsessed or trapped.</p>
<p>There is also a lot of confusion and snake oil. One famous self-tracker believed that <a href="http://observer.com/2014/04/seth-roberts-final-column-butter-makes-me-smarter/">eating half a stick a butter a day made him smarter</a> – that is, a bit faster on arbitrary math puzzles. However, that butter might have also contributed to his lethal heart disease. </p>
<p>Patterns can be illusory and the new rules based on them premature.</p>
<h1>One tracker’s story</h1>
<p>The blend of utility and meaning-making among self-trackers is exemplified by someone I first <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGQxFTIjODw">met at a Show & Tell</a> in Boston. </p>
<p>Kay Stoner describes herself as a data hoarder who suffers from headaches. As a teen she kept journals, boxes of which are now in storage. Tracking patterns and developing rules is also how she approached her headaches later in life. She developed an application for recording her symptoms and their context, but eventually settled on a <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=212006">paper-based diary</a>. </p>
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<p>Having a record showed Stoner that she could do things to lessen her headaches and that they do eventually end: “If you’ve got objective data showing you that something [helpful] did happen before, and it might just be possible again, that can nip the depression and sense of helplessness in the bud.”</p>
<p>Having a record also allows her to clearly communicate with her doctors. </p>
<p>Sometimes Stoner’s records of pain and failed remedies are dispiriting. At times she puts them aside. Yet, ultimately, tracking and experimentation are the way she manages pain, finds hope and communicates with others: “Data adds structure, meaning and purpose to my life.”</p>
<h2>Who finds meaning</h2>
<p>What I learned from the many people I encountered is that self-tracking is an ambivalent practice. </p>
<p>Chris Anderson is a former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine. He had embraced the Quantified Self and tracking with lots of questions in mind. But he found few answers. In April 2016, <a href="https://twitter.com/chr1sa/status/721198400150966274">he tweeted</a> that “After many years of self-tracking everything (activity, work, sleep) I’ve decided it’s ~pointless. No non-obvious lessons or incentives :(”.</p>
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<p>In response to his tweet, some folks defended the practice. They learned which food caused weight gain. Supposedly someone had self-diagnosed a disease missed by professionals. Others simply enjoyed plotting their data. And a few were keeping at it in the hopes that better analytics in the future might yield insights, as if awaiting a revelation.</p>
<p>When Anderson was asked why he had persisted for so long, he tersely responded: “Wanted to believe.” But he was no longer willing to wait.</p>
<p>Self-tracking can be as stressful as it is helpful. It can be illuminating and misleading. Ordinary people ought to approach it with a degree of caution, wary of pricey gadgets and extraordinary claims. Even those who like gadgets ought to be careful of the hype.</p>
<p>But, for a specific personality type, tracking transcends utility. The process itself lends meaning to coping with the uncertainties of life.</p>
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<header>Joseph Reagle is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/hacking-life">Hacking Life: Systematized Living and Its Discontents</a></p>
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</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>The people who get the most out of self-tracking tend to be ‘systematic thinkers’ who search for meaning in patterns.Joseph Reagle, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1064392018-12-10T11:41:14Z2018-12-10T11:41:14ZFor many women, tracking their fertility can be an emotional whirlwind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248487/original/file-20181203-194925-4srmyn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some women use fertility apps to track the chances of pregnancy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-image-young-hipster-girl-sitting-519503956">ImYanis/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever used a health app to track your personal data, such as diet, exercise, or menstrual cycle? Did seeing the data make you feel excited and empowered? Or stressed and frustrated? </p>
<p>With the popularity of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753409">self-tracking</a> technologies like apps and wearables, many people are becoming more engaged with their health data. According to a <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/28/tracking-for-health-2/">2012 Pew Research Center survey</a>, 69 percent of U.S. adults use tracking to manage their health or that of a loved one. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0wLwFOkAAAAJ&hl=pt-BR">My colleagues and I</a> are currently investigating a complex and emotional type of self-tracking: fertility. We specifically focus on how women use self-tracking technologies to assist their efforts to conceive. Fertility challenges are not uncommon: <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/infertility.htm">7.5 million U.S. women experience fertility issues</a>. Many of these women use fertility apps, but it’s not yet clear how these tools can potentially impact their lives. </p>
<p>Our research shows that women face multiple challenges when self-tracking for fertility, and they respond to the data in different ways. Some may find the experience positive, while others feel overwhelmed or give up altogether.</p>
<h2>Different types of engagement with data</h2>
<p>The main goal of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3134671">fertility self-tracking</a> is to detect the ovulation day, because that defines each month’s fertile period. However, there is no unique measure that can precisely identify ovulation, so women track multiple indicators – like temperature, physical symptoms or results from ovulation predictor kits – to estimate this period. Fertility apps aim to facilitate this data collection and reflection. </p>
<p>We chose to first analyze data from an online fertility forum, so we could focus on women’s questions, challenges and concerns. We analyzed 400 threads with more than 1900 posts between 2006 and 2016. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3274309">our results</a>, published in November, we categorize women’s experiences with their data into five different types.</p>
<p><strong>1. Positive</strong></p>
<p>Women who are positively engaged with their data see their data and feel excited with their results. They are often learning to track and understand their bodies, which leaves them feeling hopeful and confident. For example, one woman posted: “Do you think I should test again tomorrow and the following 2 days? This is exciting!”</p>
<p><strong>2. Burdened</strong></p>
<p>Women in this group tend to increase the amount of data they track over time, so tracking becomes more burdensome. They express a higher level of stress and anxiety when compared to the first type. However, they still have a generally positive experience tracking and viewing data. </p>
<p>For example, one woman felt anxious because she could not follow her precise tracking schedule: “I measure my temperature at 5:30 in the morning. The past 2 days I have been totally exhausted, and I over-slept. Yesterday, I did not measure my temperature until 6:30 and today I did it only at 6:50. Do you think I screwed up my temperature chart?”</p>
<p><strong>3. Obsessive</strong></p>
<p>For women in this group, tracking begins to occupy much of their attention. They tend to track even more data than the burdened type, often seeing any symptom as a possible measure to track. In this sense, they seem to be consumed with data, often over-tracking, and they express even higher levels of frustration and stress. However, they still believe in tracking and are unwilling to give up on it: “I am searching for any little pain or irregularity to give me hope. You understand how it works!”</p>
<p><strong>4. Trapped</strong></p>
<p>This is the most emotionally intense type of engagement. Women with this relationship with data often have been trying to conceive for longer. They tend to express signs of despair, guilt and dependence. They want to stop tracking, but they feel unable to, like the woman who wrote: “I want to stop trying so badly, but I just do not think I can forget about all this. I seriously do not believe I can refrain my brain from thinking ‘today is the 10th day of my cycle, I should have sex, and so on.‘”</p>
<p><strong>5. Abandoning</strong></p>
<p>In some cases, tracking becomes so emotionally burdensome and the frustration with the negative results becomes so devastating that women decide to stop tracking and trying to conceive, either temporarily or permanently. As one woman wrote: “But after all the stress, constant worrying, tracking temperature, having intercourse on time, visits to doctors, blood tests and medications, I just decided I needed a break.”</p>
<h2>A potential feedback loop</h2>
<p>Fertility challenges are naturally emotional and stressful. These negative experiences are likely not generated by self-tracking alone.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/248543/original/file-20181203-194941-78qx3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Fertility apps aim to help women figure out when they are ovulating.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pregnancy-test-on-calendar-background-health-556391353">MRAORAOR/shutterstock.com</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>However, our research suggests that self-tracking may intensify these feelings. Some specific characteristics of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3134671">fertility self-tracking</a> may contribute to this. First, fertility is very personalized, as cycles vary from person to person. Also, the measures aren’t straightforward; they can be subjective or hard to interpret, and they don’t directly pinpoint ovulation. For example, ovulation predictor kits indicate ovulation will occur in the next 12 to 36 hours, while temperature rises the day after ovulation. Besides, the goal itself may even be unachievable – pregnancy may not occur through self-tracking or at all.</p>
<p>In this scenario, the act of tracking and the emotional experiences resulting from engaging with health data can create a feedback loop, progressing together and influencing each other. Women in the positive or burdened groups may experience some negative feelings, but their relationship with data is mostly positive. In these cases, self-tracking is reinforced by positive emotions, such as hope and feelings of agency. </p>
<p>However, as our study showed, the other three types of engagement demonstrate a more problematic relationship with data. For women in the obsessive group, the measures and tracking activities dominate their emotional response. This is flipped for women in the trapped group: The emotional component is more intense and dominates their tracking activities. </p>
<p>Finally, for women with an abandoning engagement, they reach a point where the relationship with data is so negative that it can become unsustainable.</p>
<h2>Better tools</h2>
<p>Through this work, we hope to contribute to the design of self-tracking technologies that support people in managing their health without negatively impacting their lives. Part of this lies in understanding individuals’ emotions and behaviors when self-tracking.</p>
<p>Research like ours shows that the same tools and activities can generate almost opposite consequences for different people. This can be true beyond fertility. For example, diet and exercise apps can help people improve health behaviors, but may also contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025591">problematic experiences for people with eating disorders</a>. </p>
<p>That suggests it’s important to make individuals’ different emotional experiences visible. This knowledge can help us develop tools that can better support these populations. </p>
<p>For example, people may need different types of support, depending on their engagement with health data. In the fertility case, if the engagement is more problematic, tools could suggest cycles with reduced tracking, offer stress management suggestions or maybe even suggest taking breaks. Apps could also highlight the variability of fertility; note the characteristics and problems of different measures; and avoid presenting pregnancy as the only possible success.</p>
<p>If anything, our study reinforces that data are not neutral: They can have strong moral and emotional implications, especially in such sensitive contexts. As more people track their daily activities, designers need to consider how information they provide can affect users’ emotion and well-being.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mayara Costa Figueiredo received funding from the National Science Foundation under grant HCC-1219197 and from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant UL1 TR001414. The opinions and findings expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or NIH.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yunan Chen receives funding from received funding from the National Science Foundation under grant HCC-1219197. The opinions and findings expressed in this article do not reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Fertility apps aim to help women understand their bodies. But while some find tracking their data a positive experience, others may feel burdened or trapped.Mayara Costa Figueiredo, Ph.D student in Informatics, University of California, IrvineYunan Chen, Associate Professor of Informatics, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/650792016-09-08T22:18:28Z2016-09-08T22:18:28ZApple Watch pivots to fitness – and focuses on a different style of self-help<p>When Apple <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">unveiled its original watch in 2014</a>, the California company touted <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150509040832/http://www.apple.com/watch/">three tent-pole features</a> of the new wearable: style, communication and fitness. <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2016/">Rolling out</a> the second-generation Apple Watch this week, Apple has positioned fitness, and fitness alone, as the device’s main selling point. High-end fashion, and friend-to-friend gestures like the <a href="http://www.imore.com/how-send-someone-your-heartbeat-apple-watch">heartbeat share</a>, were hardly mentioned. Exercise was the unrivaled star of the watch reveal. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing Series 2 – with an emphasis on physicality.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2016/">Tim Cook’s keynote</a> introduced the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/watch/">“Series 2” device</a> with a <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">promotional video</a> dominated by sports: color bursts of swimming, tennis, basketball, cycling, stairs, skateboarding, jogging and on and on. The watch’s featured hardware changes, in addition to the requisite processor upgrade, were a GPS chip and a new “swimproof” water rating.</p>
<p>The upgraded operating system, <a href="http://www.apple.com/watchos/">watchOS 3</a>, is all about fitness too: new Activity watch faces, workout sharing, additional health metrics, and a new “Breathe” app. Cook called the watch the “ultimate device for a healthy life.” He said he expected the new version to be “especially popular with runners” – and proceeded to invite Nike’s brand chief to introduce a full-fledged, standalone unit: the <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-nike/">Apple Watch Nike+</a>. The Nike version, with its own specialized bands and watch faces, was hailed as the “perfect running partner.”</p>
<p>The Series 2 announcement did include a brief mention of new Hermés bands, as well as enhanced emojis and a “Scribble” finger-drawn input system. But the original tripartite pitch – style, communication and health – was reduced to a single, focused sell: the Apple Watch is a fitness device. And with that shift Apple has substituted a strand of self-improvement – disciplined and quantitative – for its longstanding appeals to iconoclastic self-expression. </p>
<h2>Forget fashion, follow the market to fitness</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137103/original/image-20160908-25249-1ofegob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fitness doesn’t appear to be top of mind for this high-fashion model sporting the original Apple Watch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://cdn.macrumors.com/article-new/2014/10/voguecover.jpg?retina">Vogue China</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Recall that the original watch was promoted with <a href="https://youtu.be/dAFEoUc3JNw">videos narrated by designer Jony Ive</a>, with purring, pornographic attention to design and exotic materials. Crucial to the original roll-out campaign was a relentless effort to link the watch to the fashion world: the <a href="http://www.self.com/flash/celebrity-blog/2015/02/march-cover-girl-candice-swanepoel-apple-watch/">Self</a>, <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/02/apple-watch-flare-magazine/">Flare</a> and <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/wearables/apple-watch-vogue-china-cover-iphone-6-preorders-start/">Vogue China</a> covers, the <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/apple/apple-watch-splashed-across-12-pages-of-vogues-march-issue/">12-page ad spread</a> (and <a href="http://www.vogue.com/1415025/apple-design-genius-jonathan-ive/">glowing Ive profile</a>) in U.S. Vogue, the in-store boutiques at <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/10/8380993/apple-watch-tokyo-paris-london-shopping">Galleries Lafayettes and Selfridges</a>, the high-profile hires from Burberry to L.V.M.H.</p>
<p>Equally prominent, in that <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">first unveiling</a>, were the watch’s communication features. The Dick Tracy phone calls, the intimate “Digital Touch” messaging, the dedicated “Friends” side button: The stress, back in 2014, was on new, “subtle ways to communicate.” With the Series 2 version, most of that fell away. Even the side button has been repurposed as an app-loading dock. And now it’s your Activity rings – the addictive circles that track standing, movement and exercise – you’re <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">encouraged to share</a>.</p>
<p>The business angle of Apple’s pivot to fitness isn’t that interesting. The company is following its customers and the broader wearables market – where lower-cost wristbands like Fitbit are reportedly <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/07/heres-why-apple-needs-a-new-watch-sales-are-plunging.html">picking up market share</a>. The Nike+ deal isn’t an aspirational bid to tap an underserved market. Instead, right now at least, exercise tracking is the reason consumers are buying smart watches and “basic” wearables like the Fitbit.</p>
<p>The intriguing thing about Apple’s shift in marketing is its elevation of self-improvement over self-expression. The original watch was promoted as a custom display of personal style – as an identity statement on par with clothing. Cook <a href="https://youtu.be/bdyVH5LqneU">described the original watch</a> as the “most personal device Apple has ever created,” and the device’s <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150509040832/http://www.apple.com/watch/">web copy</a> reinforced the point: Apple Watch is “more than a tool. It’s a true expression of your personal taste.” Or, in a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160406034110/http://www.apple.com/watch/">later rendition</a>: “From the way it works to the way it looks, Apple Watch isn’t just something you wear. It’s an essential part of who you are.”</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">new web copy</a>, however, drops all the expressive language: The Series 2 Watch is “designed for all the ways you move,” full of features that “help you stay active, motivated and connected.”</p>
<h2>Apple switches its flavor of self-help</h2>
<p>The shift represents a victory of one mode of self-help over another. As sociologist Micki McGee observed in <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/self-help-inc-9780195337266?cc=us&lang=en&">Self-Help, Inc.</a>, a pair of ethics have long competed in the American self-improvement market, one emphasizing self-mastery and the other self-discovery. Think <a href="https://www.tonyrobbins.com/">Tony Robbins</a> versus Oprah Winfrey: Robbins asks us to treat ourselves as objects to (relentlessly) work on, while Winfrey preaches meditative fulfillment.</p>
<p>Each ideal, in turn, <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674824263">draws on a different strand of Western individualism</a>: the notion that the self is something we own, versus the competing idea that the self is to be discovered and expressed. The first ethic, the <a href="http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195444018.html">possessive individualism</a> of philosopher John Locke, helped provoke the second notion of self discovery, as expressed in the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/508124">literary and artistic Romanticisms</a> of the 19th century. Since then – for <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/fables-of-abundance-a-cultural-history-of-advertising-in-america/oclc/30547687">over a century in the American case</a> – these two ideals have been hitched to selling consumer goods. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Apple’s traditionally been more about self-expression than self-mastery.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apple has traditionally wrapped its products in the second ideal of self-expression and discovery: the iconic <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI">1984 sledgehammer ad</a>, the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_different">Think Different</a>” and “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac">I’m a Mac/I’m a PC</a>” campaigns, <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G3">candy-colored iMacs</a> and all those <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpM5nzSEyXE">silhouetted iPod dancers</a>. Apple is selling the Series 2 Watch, by contrast, on the self-mastery ethic. It’s less “<a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjgtLSHhTPg">Here’s to the crazy ones</a>” and more <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">lap-counts and “achievement” badges</a>.</p>
<p>What’s novel about Apple’s move is that self-discipline is getting delegated to a device. In a sense, watch wearers are outsourcing their superegos to a publicly traded company, the world’s most valuable. With every tap-to-stand and Activity report – “<a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">a nudge when you need it</a>” – the watch becomes more like a personal trainer, one coded by Apple engineers. By baking in fitness-sharing (“<a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">Healthy loves company</a>”), the new watch appeals to social comparison and competition too – “whether it’s to send encouragement or a little smack talk.” And Apple’s exercise-centric messaging is built around <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509500598">quantitative self-monitoring</a>, via bar graphs and calorie counts and beats-per-minute tallies. The Series 2 “tracks all the ways you move throughout the day,” reads new <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">web copy</a>. “Select up to five metrics to view at once.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137112/original/image-20160908-25231-vl7t41.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will this pivot affect the physical health of Apple zealots?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shinyasuzuki/16924905779">Shinya Suzuki</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Exercise is a good thing. But we shouldn’t pretend the design and promotion of devices like the Apple Watch are value-neutral. By the time they’re slotted under flawless in-store glass, they already have a <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/social-shaping-of-technology/oclc/39713267">set of ideals preinstalled</a>. In the Apple Watch case, those values reflect their California origins: Our selves are objects to work on, to sculpt and measure, in competition with others. Indeed, the watch echoes the subculture of <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9781509500598">dedicated self-quantifiers</a>, who – to a deliberate extent – define themselves in metrical terms. </p>
<p>The watch’s new <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/">“Breathe” app</a> is a fascinating case in counterpoint. The app, which encourages periodic deep breathing, is meant to “help you practice mindfulness every day.” Here is a reminder of Silicon Valley’s <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3773600.html">long flirtation with New Age mysticism</a> – as well as the <a href="http://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/3941">gauzy repurposing of Buddhist meditation</a> for the self-help industry. If anything, the Breathe app is a throwback to Apple’s expressivist marketing campaigns. And in that respect the new watch echoes a century-old American injunction: <a href="http://www.jeffpooley.com/pubs/PooleyConsumingSelf2010.pdf">If you want to get ahead, go find yourself</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jefferson Pooley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Forget high-end design and cutting-edge communication. The new Watch is a fitness device and heralds a shift for the company – from enabling self-expression to nudging users toward self-mastery.Jefferson Pooley, Associate Professor of Media & Communication, Muhlenberg CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638832016-09-04T20:06:27Z2016-09-04T20:06:27ZCareful surveillance and pet wearables: at home with animals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135071/original/image-20160823-18737-jge4ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world and increasingly, we're monitoring our pets' behaviour.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Williams’ residence in suburban Melbourne is home to three dogs and five humans. Life is often chaotic as each member of the household negotiates for space and attention. It’s one of many Australian homes where animals are an integral part of family and domesticity. </p>
<p>Over the past few months, parents Andrew and John tell us, the dogs have been misbehaving, damaging furniture and belongings while people are at work and school. Andrew has approached the situation by installing webcams and purchasing a pet wearable device called “Whistle” for his dog Tigger, a German short-haired pointer who he rightly suspects is the main culprit. </p>
<p>Whistle, <a href="http://www.wareable.com/internet-of-things/the-best-pet-wearables-trackers-and-gps-for-dogs-cats-and-more">according to its website</a>, “marries GPS tracking and pet wellness in one band”. Attached to Tigger’s collar, it connects to a smartphone app that allows Andrew to track and evaluate Tigger’s exercise, play and rest in real time. Whistle is part of a <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/blog/health/the-best-pet-wearables-trackers-and-gps-collars-revolutionising-pet-health-and-wellbeing.html">burgeoning pet wearable market</a> that is <a href="http://www.nbnco.com.au/blog.html">“revolutionalising pet health and wellbeing”</a>, according to one pundit. </p>
<p>While at work, Andrew can now keep a “friendly” eye on Tigger. He has developed a solution to the dogs’ misbehavior that involves locking certain rooms and providing particular play spaces to reflect Tigger’s daily rhythms. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135068/original/image-20160823-18728-1u0emdw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Many pet owners are turning to GPS surveillance to better monitor their domestic companions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Our observations of the Williams family are part of a multi-city research project into domestic practices around digital media, mobile media and games. When we first began our research, we presumed we would focus on human practices and perceptions. But animals kept getting in the way. </p>
<p>Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world, with nearly five million households including <a href="nbnco.com.au">one or more pets</a>. As our work progressed, it became clear that humans and their pets are entangled in various forms of intimacy and kinship, often in digitally mediated ways. </p>
<p>We have observed (or heard tales of) cats playing with iPads and keyboards, of dogs watching television or participating in video calls. One of our Perth participants Anna describes how she frequently Skypes with her Blue Heeler Abby (with her partner’s help) when she’s away on work trips.</p>
<p>Abby will paw the laptop in anticipation of the evening call when Anna is absent; she gets excited, wags her tail, “talks” and presses her nose against the screen. It is quite well known that some dogs “see” screens while some don’t, Anna says, as she shows us the many YouTube videos people have uploaded of their skyping dogs. </p>
<p>As the size of technology shrinks, wearable devices have become hugely popular, from iPods to fitbits. Spurred by the <a href="http://quantifiedself.com">Quantified Self (QS) movement</a> (the use of self-tracking apps and wearables to monitor biometrics and improve daily functioning) and <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/07/28/gamification/#sJRpn1eJ2uq0">gamification</a>, global shipments of wearable devices are expected to reach <a href="https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41100116">110 million annually by the end of 2016</a>. Pet wearables are now worth $2.62 billion a year of this global market and the Australian market is <a href="https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/pet-wearable-market">tipped to grow</a>. </p>
<p>Pet wearable devices enable surveillance and tracking through devices such as Pod 2, Buddy, WÜF and Nuzzle; monitoring of heart-rate and sleep patterns (Inupathy, PetPace) and may feature geofencing capability and virtual boundary alert systems that let owners know when their pet wanders too far (eg DogTelligent). </p>
<p>Pet owners can “gamify” their pet’s exercise with a reward system and leaderboard that ranks their results compared to other pets. They can download an augmented reality app that sees through obstacles such as furniture to locate their pet. Or they can record and vicariously experience their pet’s perspective and movement remotely via wearable cameras.</p>
<p>As we explored Andrew’s problem-solving strategies further, it became clear that he had gleaned a complex sense of Tigger’s character and behaviour in the home when humans were at work. Andrew explained that particular rooms, couches and beds had different associations for Tigger (for example, he would retreat to the main bedroom when anxious). Through tracking Tigger, he said, he had gained a deeper sense of his pet’s moods.</p>
<p>Pet wearables and monitoring systems are also implicated in an ethics of care and surveillance. They originate from a genealogy of care that engages paradoxical notions of constraint and guardianship. Indeed, our relationship with domestic animals is often fraught with ambiguity; pets are both nature and culture, instinctual and social, controlled yet nurtured, at the same time possessions and companions. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135077/original/image-20160823-18708-1tmf2b3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">GPS trackers can helps us gain a deeper understanding of our pet’s moods and behaviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Our kinship with domestic animals is deeply informed by what we might call “careful surveillance”, either within the domestic sphere as we observed in the Williams household, or away from home.</p>
<p>For instance another study participant, Paul, and his beagle Millie often go for walks together. But Paul told us he worried about Millie wandering off, and so had avoided going for walks at night. Then he purchased a <a href="http://www.halobelt.com/buy-led-safety-belt/halo-mini-led-dog-collar">Halo Belt</a> for Millie, which lit up at night. It meant he could always find her in the dark and lessen the chance of her scaring other people in the park, such as night joggers. </p>
<p>The term “careful surveillance” refers to our emotional bond with domestic animals, our protective concern and love for our pets. But surveillance must also be a “careful” practice, in terms of its effects upon both human and animal. </p>
<p>As we increasingly involve our pets in the gamification and quantification of everyday life - assisted by new technologies - we should reflect on the relationship between concern and control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larissa Hjorth receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery program. Hjorth, Richardson and Balmford are part of an ARC Discovery, Games of Being Mobile, which looks at mobile games as part of Australian household media practices.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ingrid Richardson receives funding from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grant, Games of Being Mobile.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Balmford receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery program. Hjorth, Richardson and Balmford are part of an ARC Discovery, Games of Being Mobile, which looks at mobile games as part of Australian household media practices.</span></em></p>Australians are keen pet owners and increasingly, we’re monitoring the behaviour of our domestic animals. Webcams, GPS tracking, dogs joining Skype calls … pets are becoming entangled with technology in myriad ways.Larissa Hjorth, Professor of Mobile Media and Games, RMIT UniversityIngrid Richardson, Associate Professor in Digital Media, Murdoch UniversityWilliam Balmford, Research Assistant & PhD Candidate in Digital Ethnography, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/608172016-06-16T12:14:06Z2016-06-16T12:14:06ZWhy the NHS should prescribe wearable fitness trackers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126341/original/image-20160613-12948-ks4c8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The quantified self.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-246709633/stock-photo-close-up-of-mature-man-with-smartwatch-and-cellphone-showing-heartbeat-rate-sitting-at-the-table.html?src=TQ6BtVv2a641nSkk7kIhEw-1-2">Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s not yet clear whether wearable fitness trackers, such as Fitbits, Jawbones and Microsoft Bands, really do encourage us to become healthier over the longer term. They might make us move more and eat healthier in the first few days of strapping them around our wrists, but how long before the novelty wears off?</p>
<p>From my <a href="https://confessionsofafitnesstracker.wordpress.com/">own experience</a> of using these gadgets for research purposes (over nearly two years now), I must confess that using them is a bit of a chore. Still, when I’m wearing one I use the stairs instead of the lift, park further away from places so I have to walk, and I sit less and eat less. This takes effort and willpower. But, by reaching daily activity targets and measuring my progress, I have improved my body mass index (BMI), I feel healthier and I am fitter. Even when I’m on holiday, I force myself to wear one. Why? Because I am overweight and I am not motivated enough on my own. </p>
<p>My self-experimentation aside, the benefits of using wearable fitness trackers are not well understood yet. That’s maybe because they’ve only been around a few years, so it’s early days in research terms. And while the physical results that individuals experience as a result of wearing them might show promise, the benefits are not necessarily applicable to everyone. </p>
<p>The appeal of wearable fitness trackers, and their cost (they range from tens to hundreds of pounds a piece), mean that current use is largely among the “worried well”, “fitness geeks” or “<a href="http://quantifiedself.com/">quantified selves</a>” (people who use technology to track all aspects of their daily lives with the goal of self-improvement). In other words, those who want them rather than need them. But what if these devices could really make us <em>all</em> healthier? </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/126589/original/image-20160614-22377-amm18g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fitness trackers could prevent this.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=4Ye4xUKAGaRRdVoo2iVcvw&searchterm=cake%20in%20fridge&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=406234192">gmstockstudio/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>The NHS is already exploring the potential of various innovative approaches to reducing our expanding waistlines. In some areas, <a href="http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/weight_loss/losing_weight/nhs-get-paid-to-lose-weight.htm">financial incentives</a>, free access to <a href="https://www.weightwatchers.co.uk/images/2057/dynamic/articles/2010/02/WWRSA4Brochurecombined.pdf">dieting clubs</a> or <a href="https://www.southgloucestershireccg.nhs.uk/your-health-local-services/healthy-living/exercise-prescription/">exercise classes</a> are offered to encourage people to address poor diets and inactive lifestyles in the “war on obesity”. Might it be time to investigate the feasibility of wearable fitness trackers, too? Going by my own experience of using them – which is very much self-imposed – I wonder whether widening accessibility might attract and encourage a wider section of society to commit to trackers and reap the same benefits I have.</p>
<p>Obesity is strongly linked with <a href="http://www.noo.org.uk/uploads/doc/vid_16966_AdultSocioeconSep2012.pdf">poverty and low educational attainment</a>, so we might assume that many of those at risk would not be your typical fitness tracker consumers. But if fitness trackers were made available through health services, like the other options are, they could have the potential to improve eating habits and increase activity for those who need encouragement most.</p>
<p>The Medical Research Council provides <a href="https://www.mrc.ac.uk/documents/pdf/complex-interventions-guidance/">guidance</a> on how to develop and evaluate new strategies to improve health. But these take time and it seems a shame that our health services are not exploiting current trends in self-tracking. The NHS already offers <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nhs-health-check/pages/tools-and-technology-that-can-help.aspx">advice on wearable fitness gadgets</a> to potential wearers – why not the devices themselves?</p>
<h2>An ounce of prevention</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.frontiersin.org/10.3389/conf.FPUBH.2016.01.00045/3118/2nd_Behaviour_Change_Conference_Digital_Health_and_Wellbeing/all_events/event_abstract">My recent research</a> found that the NHS has started to use new technologies for lifestyle management. But it seems that their use is mostly for people who have already developed chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes (which can be linked to obesity), rather than to target disease prevention. Are we missing an opportunity?</p>
<p>There are research gaps around the everyday impacts of using these devices on people’s lives – will they become addicted, will they get tired of self-monitoring – and some concerns about how wearable fitness trackers might <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-fitness-trackers-damage-our-relationships-with-our-doctors-52611">negatively affect our relationship with our doctor</a>, for example by replacing face-to-face contact with machine interactions. </p>
<p>There are also issues around information, surveillance and privacy, and the lengths to which, if we use NHS-provided tech, our data might be used against us if we don’t comply with recommendations about healthy living. But, at the moment, these fears could be allayed by the simple offer of a wearable fitness tracker on the same terms as any other prescription.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Morgan's recent work was funded by The Wellcome Trust through the University of Aberdeen’s Institutional Strategic Support Fund under Grant RG12724-13. She is currently employed at the Health Services Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen, which is supported by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.</span></em></p>To tackle obesity, the NHS is experimenting with financial incentives, dieting clubs and free exercise classes. But what about prescribing digital fitness trackers?Heather May Morgan, Research Fellow, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/422152015-05-29T10:09:16Z2015-05-29T10:09:16ZSocial media’s charts and metrics turn us into quantified digital versions of ourselves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82737/original/image-20150522-32555-1o0rmpc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who am I? Better check the stats.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/8061171082">See-ming Lee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, LinkedIn <a href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/05/07/new-analytics-for-publishing-on-linkedin/">announced</a> an update to its users’ already-teeming profile view. The social network now lets you track and chart who’s viewed your posts, complete with a “performance summary” and a colorful demographic breakdown. The new analytics tool extends last year’s <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/21/linkedin-takes-another-page-from-klout-intros-how-you-rank-in-profile-views/">big feature update</a>, which encouraged users to see how they “rank” (as in, “You rank in the top 48% for profile views among your connections”). The service already let you track your profile views, with an “insights” graph and an invitation to “See how you’re trending.”</p>
<p>On LinkedIn, we see ourselves in reflection – as we do all the time, though perhaps without such bar-graph depth. Life online is a hall of mirrors, where we catch our own visage multiple times a day. There is that scrollable story of our lives, Facebook’s Timeline.</p>
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<p>On Twitter we may glance at <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/the-unbearable-lightness-of-tweeting/385484/">our profile’s mix of pithy self-description and retweet metrics</a>. Google <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egosurfing" title="title="Egosurfing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">“self-Googling”</a> and nearly a million hits come up. We know that those Netflix or Amazon recommendations are generated from a history of our clicks. Even the ads we see are glancing back at us with tailored copy – and we have a dawning sense that that’s really <em>us</em> they’re pitching to.</p>
<p>We’re always encountering these self-likenesses. The sheer quantity and variety matter, but what’s more interesting is that they are <em>not</em> like a reflection in the mirror. Instead of the face and upper torso, we see retweet counts and Google search results. Lots of these self-likeness snapshots confront us as numbers and text. Seeing ourselves like this, tallied and set in type, almost certainly changes the self-image we carry around. The result is not just amped-up self-consciousness, but a different kind altogether – more thing-like and tabular. The self that’s looking back through the glass resembles an instrument panel.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82735/original/image-20150522-32551-1l6aq30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Check your social media instrument panels, recalibrate the self.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/4073598391">Roger Smith</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
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<p>The reason this matters is that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134725">we never stop revising the picture we have of ourselves</a>. We sense that our identities are fixed in place – rock-solid and immovable – but <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2014.933712">we’re wrong about that</a>. Each time we see ourselves represented in, for example, our Twitter profile or judged with a flurry of comments on our Facebook status, we <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/symb.123/abstract;jsessionid=E10ABFF1DF9D215ED7D128338F64B19C.f01t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false">recalibrate</a>. Yes, these are tiny, iterative acts of self-adjustment; no one fancies himself dashing and mysterious after 150 likes on his filtered Instagram selfie. But the self is, as the sociologist George Herbert Mead <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=R0u2QZHCkE0C&pg=PA182&dq=mead+mind+self+society+eddy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MS1KVd2XKMTdsASGmYD4Dw&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=mead%20mind%20self%20society%20eddy&f=false">observed 80 years ago</a>, “an eddy in the social current and so still a part of the current.” Our lot is continual adjustment, based on what we see in all these glowing LED rectangles.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82733/original/image-20150522-32589-o5yv20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does that little screen tell you about you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/68532869@N08/17468693762">Japanexperterna.se</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>As a result, we’re getting used to seeing ourselves as detached and distributed – as something external to our bodies and inner experience. It’s true that we have been thinking about ourselves as objects to be managed (and promoted) for a long time. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Political-Theory-Possessive-Individualism/dp/0195444019" title="The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke \(Wynford Project\): C.B. Macpherson, Frank Cunningham: 9780195444018: Amazon.com: Books">“Possessive individualism”</a> is a major strand in the history of the Western self, one that political scientist <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._B._Macpherson">CB Macpherson</a> has traced back to the 17th century. Certainly the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cy10BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT36&dq=marketing+orientation+fromm&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FaRjVayUGJP7sASIq4PoBg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=marketing%20orientation%20fromm&f=false">injunction to “sell” oneself</a> predates Mark Zuckerberg. But the self-likeness deluge can’t help but amplify the point: you’re the product <em>and</em> its chief marketer. The language of “self-branding,” so recently off-putting and gauche, is now utterly banal – in part <em>because</em> we’re spending so much time tuning and calibrating and viewing our web-based doppelgängers.</p>
<p>These portraits, some of them anyway, are composed in numbers and line charts. <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/">WolframAlpha</a> offers <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/facebook/">“personal analytics”</a> for Facebook. The analytics <em>are</em> personal – and colorful. A few dozen charts, maps and tables add up to a numerical portrait of your life on Facebook. There’s your most-liked post, a word cloud culled from your statuses, and a graph tracking the length of your posts over time.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=982&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82738/original/image-20150522-32586-ml6md0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1234&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oh no! Are more followers disengaged than before?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambodia4kidsorg/4193739771">Cambodia4kids.org Beth Kanter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Social media sites like LinkedIn and Pinterest present users with profile pages that resemble gaming leaderboards or a corporation’s annual report. Twitter, on its newish profile page (“a whole new you”) and almost everywhere else, banners your Tweets-Following-Followers triptych. Fitbit’s dashboard could be mistaken for a flight simulator. On some sites we don’t see the numbers, but know they are there. With Facebook’s Timeline, for example, most of us sense that our reverse-chronological self is generated by a likes-and-comments, secret-sauce algorithm. It’s not just the <a href="http://quantifiedself.com/" title="Quantified Self | Self Knowledge Through NumbersQuantified Self | Self Knowledge Through Numbers">hardcore quantified-selfers</a> who get to see themselves reflected in charts and figures.</p>
<p>Data-rich self-representations aren’t new – think report cards and resumes. There are just a lot more of them now. It’s like a perpetual Google alert – and with no real opt-out. The result is something like <em>digital self-consciousness</em>, in both the behind-the-screen, computerized sense and the ones-twos-and-threes numerical sense. If the self, as sociologist <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life" title="The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia">Erving Goffman famously argued</a>, is a performance, the online enactments are dispersed and disembodied. Plus the scene never ends, and there’s no backstage. Psychologists have written about <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0076760" title="PsycNET - Display Record">“public self-consciousness”</a> for decades, but we’re now faced with dozens of always-on selves getting served from data centers thousands of miles away. And these self-likenesses aren’t just out-of-body but digital in that second sense: numbers set in flat sans serif. We’re used to seeing the dashboard self, in other words, and its fun-house, bits-and-binary reflection doesn’t faze us.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82739/original/image-20150522-32583-mtnxbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">You are the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/101018579@N06/12470355675">Dustin O'Donnell Design</a></span>
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<p>So the online self is both external and metricized. Taken together, these two traits encourage an Oz-like mentality. We’re pulling levers and uploading profile pics, or we’re anxious that we haven’t fed our Klout-filtered <em>amour-propre</em> lately. We come to see ourselves as fungible objects, requiring constant work – product-improvement work – to exchange for friendship, employment and self-esteem. Those are good, necessary things, of course. But Facebook and its rivals need us to keep preening, posting and working. That way they can deliver tailored ads that, in their targeted flow, look like us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jefferson Pooley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As social media slices and dices us into profile view rankings, numbers of likes and retweets, and follower engagement data, we constantly reflect on and recalibrate our digital selves.Jefferson Pooley, Associate Professor of Media & Communication, Muhlenberg CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.