Fallacy surrounding wearables Jolin Kan A0203002L
In the reading by Crawford, K., Lingel, J., & Karppi, T. (2015), they discuss the birth of wearables and the significance, or rather lack thereof of data wearables collect. They compare the effects and advertising of wearables against the normal weight scale. When it comes to wearables today, many of us are extremely used to it as it has been normalised and we do not question how third party applications benefit and use our data or the effectiveness of wearables.
Wearables have always claimed to make users' lives better as they collect data of users and with that data, it will add to users’ self-knowledge which helps users get fitter. While it may seem to be a great premise for what is considered advanced technology and a great product, the authors put to light the gap of how self knowledge results in users getting fitter. If we were to approach anyone with a wearable device such as a FitBit and ask them why they are using it, they would likely answer that by measuring and tracking their progress it provides insight to the self. However, such an association seems to be a fallacy as it has been a theme that advertisers stuck to ever since the early 20th century starting from the weight scale. Users are convinced that with the data about themselves, it would naturally lead to self improvement. Users are so convinced by the narrative that they miss out the fact that they themselves do not do anything after receiving the data, there would be no form of self improvement. Furthermore, if users are passive about the recorded data, the only ones benefiting from it are third party analytics companies who have access to the data. While some may argue that wearables do more than just record personal data as they have algorithms to how one which percentile they are in, these results have no actual proven accuracy as the way they are constructed is unknown.
I agree with the authors’ point of view as I find that wearables have become normalised and often people do not question the actual effectiveness of such devices. Just like how we have become used to our smartphones, we are used to technology being part of our everyday lives and we perceive wearables as a need rather than want. However, this does not mean that wearables are completely useless as people who actually interact with the recorded data are able to actually reach the point of self improvement. For example, people who work out often or personal trainers tend to use wearables to keep track of their calorie count which aids them in meal and workout plans, which does in fact lead to self improvement.
In conclusion, advertisements creating a false sense of how wearables magically leads to self improvement has led to people being misled on the effects of wearables. Users themselves need to be active and interact with their data in order to fill gaps that advertisements do not offer in order to reach self improvement.












