Contents
Goals
- Learn about an individual approach to the quantified self.
- Understand the personal and social impact of widespread QS technologies.
Steps
1. Introduce the personas presented in the article Tracking us: Quantified self
Ask participants to position themselves. Where do they place their use of trackers on a continuum of frequent trackers to non-trackers?
2. Exchange in smaller groups:
- What type of quantified self are you?
- Where and how do you measure yourself/are you tracked?
- What is the positive, negative or ambivalent outcome?
- Where do you see challenges, dangers, potentials?
Reflection
From a user perspective: impact on health, body image, social relations. How does it change your (self) perception, physis, relations to others?
From a platform perspective: unique personal data. How is it stored, shared, processed? What do you know about the quality of the analytical models? Were you able to “cheat” the system?
From a societal perspective: who has an interest in access to such health data of citizens? What would be a legitimate interest? Should widespread tracking data be used for systems like health insurance? Do we define and judge (un)healthy behaviour differently? What advantages or disadvantages do those face who do not participate?
Variation: With the eyes of a criminal investigator
Include a look into the participants’ personal data. Many platforms offer analysis going back many years. Log in and look with the eye of a criminal investigator at your profile. Can you identify anything that may be interpreted as suspicious? Something extraordinary? Would it be acceptable for you if somebody else would had access to this data?
