Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Blog 17: Buckle Up

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In Chapters 3 and 4 we dive into a world where we have accepted wearable technologies as the present and the future. We know that wearable technologies are just starting to emerge and we have to prepared for how they will further develop and expand in the future. Neff and Nafus talk about how you can deal with these tools and use them to your advantage. The step is acceptance. Chapter 3 talked a lot about us as consumers and how we can quickly become obsessed with these tools for tracking our progress. We feel the need to justify our habits by making them concrete with tracking. I know that when I first got my fitbit I almost felt like a slave to the device. I didn’t feel accomplished unless I hit my step goal for the day. Even, if the reason I didn’t hit my goal is because I was being productive with my homework. There just wasn’t the rush of satisfaction when I had a documented record of it. With all that being said it is important to look into Chapter 4 where Neff and Nafus discuss the appeal that the industry creates when developing these devices. They look for solutions, social influence, data tracking, and more. It is consumer based, but given to us by the industry that does some of the most self-tracking. They self-track in their sales and through our usage. They look for fads and study how to look past those fads and how they can keep their self-tracking products relevant. All together self-tracking is something that is very current and something that will be around for a long time, so buckle up.

Questions for discussion:
  1. How do we protect ourselves from becoming zombies of our devices?
  2. What are some of the most effective and ineffective ways that we have seen self-tracking used? How did we grow from our failures and succeed from our successes?

Sources:
Neff, G. & Nafus, D. (2016). Self-Tracking. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Chapters 3 & 4]
Picture: http://synapse-circuit.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-follow-up-on-iron-man

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