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Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data
OBJECTIVE: Self-tracking technologies have created high hopes, even hype, for aiding people to govern their own health risks and promote optimal wellness. High expectations do not, however, necessarily materialize due to connective gaps between personal experiences and self-tracking data. This study...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001204/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29942640 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2055207618779714 |
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author | Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari Pantzar, Mika |
author_facet | Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari Pantzar, Mika |
author_sort | Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: Self-tracking technologies have created high hopes, even hype, for aiding people to govern their own health risks and promote optimal wellness. High expectations do not, however, necessarily materialize due to connective gaps between personal experiences and self-tracking data. This study examines situations when self-trackers face difficulties in engaging with, and reflecting on, their data with the aim of identifying the specificities and consequences of such connective gaps in self-tracking contexts. METHODS: The study is based on empirical analyses of interviews of inexperienced, experienced and extreme self-trackers (in total 27), who participated in a pilot study aiming at promoting health and wellness. RESULTS: The study shows that people using self-tracking devices actively search for constant connectivity to their everyday experiences and particularly health and wellness through personal data but often become disappointed. The results suggest that in connective gaps the personal data remains invisible or inaccurate, generating feelings of confusion and doubt in the users of the self-tracking devices. These are alarming symptoms that may lead to indifference when disconnectivity becomes solidified and data ends up becoming dead, providing nothing useful for the users of self-tracking technologies. CONCLUSIONS: High expectations which are put on wearables to advance health and wellness may remain unmaterialised due to connective gaps. This is problematic if individuals are increasingly expected to be active in personal data collection and interpretation regarding their own health and wellness. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6001204 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60012042018-06-25 Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari Pantzar, Mika Digit Health Original Research OBJECTIVE: Self-tracking technologies have created high hopes, even hype, for aiding people to govern their own health risks and promote optimal wellness. High expectations do not, however, necessarily materialize due to connective gaps between personal experiences and self-tracking data. This study examines situations when self-trackers face difficulties in engaging with, and reflecting on, their data with the aim of identifying the specificities and consequences of such connective gaps in self-tracking contexts. METHODS: The study is based on empirical analyses of interviews of inexperienced, experienced and extreme self-trackers (in total 27), who participated in a pilot study aiming at promoting health and wellness. RESULTS: The study shows that people using self-tracking devices actively search for constant connectivity to their everyday experiences and particularly health and wellness through personal data but often become disappointed. The results suggest that in connective gaps the personal data remains invisible or inaccurate, generating feelings of confusion and doubt in the users of the self-tracking devices. These are alarming symptoms that may lead to indifference when disconnectivity becomes solidified and data ends up becoming dead, providing nothing useful for the users of self-tracking technologies. CONCLUSIONS: High expectations which are put on wearables to advance health and wellness may remain unmaterialised due to connective gaps. This is problematic if individuals are increasingly expected to be active in personal data collection and interpretation regarding their own health and wellness. SAGE Publications 2018-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6001204/ /pubmed/29942640 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2055207618779714 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Creative Commons NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work as published without adaptation or alteration, without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
spellingShingle | Original Research Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari Pantzar, Mika Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title | Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title_full | Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title_fullStr | Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title_full_unstemmed | Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title_short | Seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: Specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
title_sort | seeking connectivity to everyday health and wellness experiences: specificities and consequences of connective gaps in self-tracking data |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6001204/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29942640 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2055207618779714 |
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