Subtle Reminder: A Wearable’s Daily Role

[Originally written March 2014 for Technaddict (now defunct). Formatting and images have been removed for copyright reasons.]

by Brian Gooding

My father gave me Fitbit Force for Christmas. I’m working on a less-sedentary lifestyle and the Force seemed like a reasonable request for a gift. The Force is a wearable, a piece of wearable technology that has sensors which are constantly collecting data–the data is compiled and then accessed via an app. I primarily wanted to see the amount of steps I took per day.

So…why am I writing about something I got for Christmas when it’s already March? Well, I wanted to see if the Force would still prove motivating after the initial excitement of a new toy wore off.

The first few days after wearing the Force I oscillated between whether or not I should “act normal” now that my behavior was being tracked, or if I should try to be more active to get the numbers up–which is the ultimate goal. When I went to bed I tried to be as still as possible in order to not record any movement. I quickly realized that in trying make my behavior as “normal” as possible that I was altering my typical awareness level of my behavior. To me this is key in why wearables work–the user naturally becomes more cognizant of the level of behavior they are at compared to my goal and it becomes almost game-like.

Weeks went by and I noticed the Force less except for the vibrations going off when I met the daily goal of steps. At times I would check my progress and realize I really needed to start walking more if I was going to hit the goal for the day. I would find times throughout the day where I could take a quick break and instead of checking my phone or reading the news, I would get up and walk around, because I wanted to make my daily goal.

When I see my activity in numbers as opposed to just thinking, “oh, I walked a lot today,” it seems to mean more, as silly as that may sound. The numbers make it less abstract. I think that is why a lot of people don’t exercise–if they don’t see quick results, it’s like nothing is happening–but with a wearable even if you aren’t seeing immediate physical results, you can at least have some metric to validate that you have been productive.

Quantifying our lives has definitely become a trend that wearables are playing a big part in. The Force has nudged me in the direction of being more mindful of my levels of activity, while reinforcing higher levels of activity by congratulating me with e-mails for different milestones I accomplish and sending weekly reports of my activity. For me the Force has been effective in upping my activity levels and making me think more about my health in general. This is where I hope more technology is headed–getting us more in tune with our selves and our health, becoming an extension and aid rather than just a distraction.