Personal Health Tracking Technologies in Practice
Nanna Gorm · 2017
Personal health tracking technologies are becoming increasingly popular, both at individual level and as part of health promotion initiatives in the workplace. Workplace health tracking in particular has caused concerns of increasing surveillance of employees, simplification of health to numbers causing negative financial and personal implications to employees. So far, however, research has looked mainly at short-term, self-motivated tracking, or at workplace health and wellness programs that do not offer activity tracking. In my thesis I focus on everyday uses of activity trackers, as these are commercialized and implemented at home and in the workplace. I present findings from three empirical studies of wearable health tracking technologies in practice, questioning the underlying assumptions of activity tracking.