O'Riordan, Kate (2018) Wearable technologies and material communication practices. In: Murray, Sarah and Morris, Jeremy (eds.) Appified: culture in age of apps. University of Michigan Press, pp. 115-124. ISBN 9780472074044

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Book Section
Schools and Departments:	School of Media, Film and Music > Media and Film
Research Centres and Groups:	Sussex Humanities Lab
Subjects:	H Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Kate O'Riordan
Date Deposited:	13 Apr 2018 15:39
Last Modified:	18 Dec 2018 10:07
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/75087

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