Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of wearable health and fitness trackers in everyday life, and users’ motivations and their understanding and use of the data derived from devices, and understand the results using the lens of information behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used a qualitative, constructionist approach, based on 21 interviews with users of a range of wearable activity trackers used for health and fitness.
Findings
Findings show that the lifelogging devices have become companion tools that enable users to take information from their bodily indicators and make some decisions about their health and fitness, and also track the results when they act on it, thus giving them a sense of gratification and a sense of control over their own health.
Practical implications
The findings have implications on how health professionals can talk to their lifelogging patients about how to deal with and understand the information provided by their activity-tracking devices. Some participants in the study already discuss these data regularly with their health professionals.
Originality/value
As the self-tracking practices attract wide range research interests from human–computer interaction, information systems, digital sociology, health informatics and marketing among others. This study provides important everyday information-seeking perspective that contributes to the understanding of the practices of how people make sense of the data, how the data improves their wellbeing, i.e. physical health improvement or fitness, and implications to users health behaviour. Additionally the study adds to the lifelogging literature through a constructionist, qualitative approach rather than a technological deterministic approach.
With increased innovation and adoption of digital technologies in our everyday life for various purposes, media, privacy experts, advocates, scholars and researchers have noted and raised privacy and security concerns associated with the misuse of personal information from digital technologies. These technologies enable collection, processing and re-puposing of personal information for various purposes by commercial and interested entities.This paper presents a privacy awareness perspective in an attempt to understand how people respond to privacy concerns while using activity tracking devices and applications, loyalty cards and related data sharing within various information ecologies. The research used a constructivist paradigm; we interviewed twenty-one users of activity trackers and loyalty cards to understand their privacy practices. Results show that privacy is a flexible concept which is a result of users' negotiation between the benefits and the harms of disclosing personal information.
Public libraries in Kenya were established with the aim of providing information services to the general public. The Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) is responsible for providing services through its library network across the country. In the past, to combat illiteracy, the library launched various initiatives, including mobile services and community libraries. The public libraries are in a transition period of moving from paper library services to incorporate modern digital technologies for information access. This article addresses the progress from predigital to the present, examining difficulties and challenges faced in adopting new technologies in the modern information age.Public libraries in Kenya provide a wide range of information services through their national and public library networks. The aim is to build a wide range of educational responses to combat poverty and deprivation, including launching various national campaigns to fight against illiteracy. As pointed out by Mchombu and Cadbury (2006), rural and urban poor communities could better tackle their social and economic problems if the general public in Africa is able to access information that could meet their
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