Author(s):
- Lomborg, Stine
- Thylstrup, Nanna Bonde
- Schwartz, Julie
Abstract:
This article conceptualizes the experience of self-tracking as flow, a central technique, utilized by digital media companies to hook their users. We argue the notion of flow is valuable for understanding both the temporal lock-ins of self-tracking practices in sequences and repetition, and the way self-tracking technologies thrive on data sequences for retaining users and creating viable businesses. To substantiate this, we present a qualitative empirical study of how users experience flow when tracking various aspects of their personal lives. Users find self-tracking technology and the metrics they generate to have much more limited relevance and thus guide their attention elsewhere. If they are hooked, they are so in ways different from those projected by the technology. Users find meaning in their self-tracking in moments of registration, allocution, consultation and conversation, but also problematize their attachment to specific temporal tracking regimes.
Document:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818778542
References:
| Barta, K, Neff, G (2016) Technologies for Sharing: lessons from quantified self about the political economy of platforms. Information, Communication & Society 19: 518–531. Google Scholar | |
| Berg, M (2017) Making sense with sensors: self-tracking and the temporalities of wellbeing. Digital Health 3. DOI: 10.1177/2055207617699767. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Bordewijk, JL, Kaam, BV (1986) Towards a new classification of tele-information services. Intermedia 14: 16–21. Google Scholar | |
| Bucher, E, Fieseler, C (2017) The flow of digital labor. New Media & Society 19: 1868–1886. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Csikszentmihalyi, M (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper & Row. Google Scholar | |
| Didžiokaitė, G, Saukko, P, Greiffenhagen, C (2017) The mundane experience of everyday calorie trackers: beyond the metaphor of quantified self. New Media & Society 20: 1470–1487. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Etkin, J (2016) The hidden cost of personal quantification. Journal of Consumer Research 42: 967–984. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Feuer, J (1983) The concept of live television: ontology as ideology. In: Kaplan, EA (ed.) Regarding Television: Critical Approaches—An Anthology. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America. Google Scholar | |
| Fox, S, Duggan, M (2013) Tracking for Health. Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Google Scholar | |
| Hesselberth, P (2017) Discourses on disconnectivity and the right to disconnect. New Media & Society 20: 1994–2010. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Ihde, D (1990) Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington, IN; Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Jensen, KB (1995) The Social Semiotics of Mass Communication. London: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
| Juul, J (2009) Fear of failing? The many meanings of difficulty in video games. In: Perron, B, Wolf, MJP (eds) The Video Game Theory Reader 2. New York: Routledge, pp. 237–252. Google Scholar | |
| Kristensen, DB, Ruckenstein, M (2018) Co-evolving with self-tracking technologies. New Media & Society 20(10): 3624–3640. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Lazar, A, Koehler, C, Tanenbaum, J. (2015) Why we use and abandon smart devices. In: Proceedings of the ACM international joint conference on pervasive and ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp’15), Osaka, Japan, 7–11 September, pp. 635–646. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | |
| Lomborg, S and, Frandsen, K (2016) Self-tracking as communication. Information, Communication & Society 19: 1015–1027. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Lupton, D (2014) Self-tracking modes: reflexive self-monitoring and data practices. In: Proceedings of the imminent citizenships: personhood and identity politics in the informatic age workshop, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 27 August. Google Scholar | |
| Lupton, D (2017) Personal data practices in the age of lively data. In: Daniels, J, Gregory, K, Mcmillan Cottom, T (eds) Digital Sociologies. Bristol: Policy Press. Google Scholar | |
| Lupton, D, Pink, S, Labond, CH. (2018) Personal data contexts, data sense, and self-tracking cycling. International Journal of Communication 12: 647–665. Google Scholar | |
| Neff, G, Nafus, D (2016) Self-Tracking. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Google Scholar | |
| Pantzar, M, Ruckenstein, M (2017) Living the metrics: self-tracking and situated objectivity. Digital Health 3. DOI: 10.1177/2055207617712590. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Pantzar, M, Ruckenstein, M, Mustonen, V (2016) Social rhythms of the heart. Health Sociology Review 26: 22–37. Google Scholar | Medline | |
| Patel, M, O’Kane, AA (2015) Contextual influences on the use and non-use of digital technology while exercising at the gym. In: Proceedings of the 33rd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘15). Seoul, Korea, 18–23 April, pp. 2923–2932. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | |
| Pink, S, Sumartojo, E, Lupton, D. (2017) Mundane data: the routines, contingencies and accomplishments of digital living. Big Data & Society 4(1). DOI: 10.1177/2053951717700924. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Ruckenstein, M (2014) Visualized and interacted life: personal analytics and engagements with data doubles. Societies 4: 68–84. Google Scholar | |
| Ruckenstein, M (2017) Keeping data alive: talking DTC genetic testing. Information, Communication & Society 20: 1024–1039. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Ruckenstein, M and, Pantzar, M (2017) Beyond the quantified self: thematic exploration of a dataistic paradigm. New Media & Society 19: 401–418. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Satchell, C and, Dourish, P (2009) Beyond the user: use and non-use in HCI. In: Proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the Australian computer-human interaction special interest group: design: open 24/7 (OZCHI ‘09), Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 23–27 November, pp. 9–16. New York: ACM Press. Google Scholar | |
| Schüll, ND (2012) Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar | |
| Schüll, ND (2016) Keeping Track: Personal Informatics, Self-Regulation, and the Data-Driven Life. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Google Scholar | |
| Selwyn, N (2006) Digital division or digital decision? A study of non-users and low-users of computers. poetics 34(4): 273–292. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Sharon, T, Zandbergen, D (2017) From data fetishism to quantifying selves: self-tracking practices and the other values of data. New Media & Society 19: 1695–1709. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
| Williams, R (1974) Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London; Fontana, CA: HarperCollins. Google Scholar | |
| Wolf, G (2010) The data-driven life. The New York Times, 28 April. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html Google Scholar |