Self-Tracking to Do Less: An Autoethnography of Long COVID That Informs the Design of Pacing Technologies
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review
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Self-Tracking to Do Less : An Autoethnography of Long COVID That Informs the Design of Pacing Technologies. / Homewood, Sarah.
CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2023. p. 1-14 656.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review
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TY - GEN
T1 - Self-Tracking to Do Less
T2 - 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2023
AU - Homewood, Sarah
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Owner/Author.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Long COVID is a post-viral illness where symptoms are still experienced more than three months after an infection of COVID 19. In line with a recent shift within HCI and research on self-tracking towards first-person methodologies, I present the results of an 18-month long autoethnographic study of using a Fitbit fitness tracker whilst having long COVID. In contrast to its designed intentions, I misused my Fitbit to do less in order to pace and manage my illness. My autoethnography illustrates three modes of using fitness tracking technologies to do less and points to the new design space of technologies for reducing, rather than increasing, activity in order to manage chronic illnesses where over-exertion would lead to a worsening of symptoms. I propose that these "pacing technologies"should acknowledge the interoceptive and fluctuating nature of the user's body and support user's decision-making when managing long-term illness and maintaining quality of life.
AB - Long COVID is a post-viral illness where symptoms are still experienced more than three months after an infection of COVID 19. In line with a recent shift within HCI and research on self-tracking towards first-person methodologies, I present the results of an 18-month long autoethnographic study of using a Fitbit fitness tracker whilst having long COVID. In contrast to its designed intentions, I misused my Fitbit to do less in order to pace and manage my illness. My autoethnography illustrates three modes of using fitness tracking technologies to do less and points to the new design space of technologies for reducing, rather than increasing, activity in order to manage chronic illnesses where over-exertion would lead to a worsening of symptoms. I propose that these "pacing technologies"should acknowledge the interoceptive and fluctuating nature of the user's body and support user's decision-making when managing long-term illness and maintaining quality of life.
KW - autoethnography
KW - COVID 19
KW - Fitbit
KW - fitness tracking technologies
KW - Heart-rate monitor
KW - Long COVID
KW - pacing technologies
KW - Phenomenology
KW - Post COVID-19 syndrome
KW - Self-Tracking
KW - Step counting
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160017930&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3544548.3581505
DO - 10.1145/3544548.3581505
M3 - Article in proceedings
AN - SCOPUS:85160017930
SP - 1
EP - 14
BT - CHI 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Y2 - 23 April 2023 through 28 April 2023
ER -
ID: 355094517