Abstract:
This study investigates the effects of information supplied by selftracking technologies on the human-technology relationship through a postphenomenological approach. Self-tracking technologies, which have become
increasingly popular among users since 2000, nowadays, provide biodata to
individuals in many different areas from daily step count to heart rhythm or
from sleep quality to symptom tracking. The first part of the paper revisits
post-phenomenological approach that is a relatively new approach analyzing
the human-technology relation. The empirical focus of the study is grounded
on the motivation for applying self-tracking gadgets, perceptions of gathered
data, potential changes in the conception of the self-knowledge through
mediated data and its possible consequences. For the empirical research an
open-text survey is conducted with 26 people who were users of a selftracking device. The findings suggest that self-tracking activity through
wearable technology affects the perception of self-knowledge and
preliminary results also indicate a dependency to measured data more than it
is needed. The results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of
adoption of the emerging wearable technology in daily life.