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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...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari, Pantzar, Mika
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2018
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.
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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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