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Wearable technologies and material communication practices

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posted on 2023-06-20, 14:17 authored by Kate O'RiordanKate O'Riordan
Fitbit is an app that pairs with a health and fitness tracking device. In this essay I make three key arguments about apps, particularly Fitbit. My first argument is that apps have become the interface environment for proliferating hardware devices. In Fitbit’s case, automated data collection is made meaningful through the address of the app to the person using the device. Second, Fitbit constructs an ideal gendered subject for automated fitness tracking. Third, although Fitbit promises a more active lifestyle, the automation of recording directly modulates a more constrained and eviscerated subject than other forms of tracking such as journaling and diaries. I bring in English writer Dorothy Wordsworth’s diaries as a case study to offer a historical perspective to the measuring of women’s footsteps over time and the changing notion of the fit feminine subject.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Page range

115-124

Book title

Appified: culture in age of apps

ISBN

9780472074044

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Humanities Lab Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Sarah Murray, Jeremy Morris

Legacy Posted Date

2018-04-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-09-10

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