Quantified Self- Fitbit Tracker
I use a fitbit tracker and the fitbit app daily. The only effort I put into using the app is simply placing the device on my wrist. Since I do not use all of the features it offers, I do not enter much information in. When signing up, I had to do the basics of adding my email address to create an account. I now get emails notifying me when I receive a friend request or when my fitbit battery is low. I simply use the fitbit to count steps and meet my goal of 10,000 steps each day. Despite all the features it provides such as the exercise tracker, weight loss tracker, and calorie counter, I do not use any of them. Therefore, it does not require me to enter any information. I do find it pretty awesome that it can track my sleeping patters every night. All I have to do is tap my fitbit 5 consecutive times and it then knows to start tracking my sleep. Watching my sleep pattern does not change the way I sleep, I just find it pretty cool.
I do believe the fitbit can potentially change my health because it pushes me to be more active in order to reach my goal. I actually find myself not caring about how much walking I do when I forget my fitbit at home, but find myself taking the longer routes on campus when I do wear my fitbit. I do not post results on social media simply because I do not feel the need to. I do, however, have a few friends added on the app, in which we compete with each other daily. The app ranks my friends and I by who has the most steps throughout the week. Personally, I enjoy the tracking from the fitbit. Overall, it makes me happy and more productive because it helps me push myself to reach my goal of 10,000 steps. I think the competitive aspect competing with friends helps me try even harder to make my goal. I do not have any feeling towards others posting on their quantified self, perhaps they do it to make them feel better about themselves, so more power to them!
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I like your opinions on others who participate in self-tracking. In many cases, I think that those who post on social media about their personal tracking are vilified and made out to be unnecessarily seeking attention or boring. But in many cases, publicizing their own self-tracking can help someone stay accountable, or be happier, or stay on track. Regardless of the reasoning behind it, it’s not really any of our business to say what’s right or wrong for them; the whole purpose of the quantified self is to help define your own life, and we don’t have the responsibility or even the power to do that for anyone else.
I really enjoyed reading about this post and how you use your Fitbit. Although they seem to be super popular in today’s world, I am actually not well versed on all this technology has to offer, so having you explain a little bit of it really helps!
I love the idea of the Fitbit being a motivator. For me, I always achieve more when I have a close, attainable, concrete goal in front of me, and that is something that the Fitbit does with the 10,000 step goal. Another idea I really like is using competition with other Fitbit users. Competition always brings out more energy to push farther, so the idea of making exercise a competition is awesome to me.
I’m glad you brought up the happiness and productivity in your blog post! Great blog! I’m glad that you also brought up that some things you don’t necessarily want to change, but like tracking. Self-tracking definitely does not always mean changing things, and I think that is super important to think about! Also, contributing your “regular” sleep patterns to big data can give a really accurate data set!