Activity Trackers, Relational Affordances, and Device Ecologies of Fitness Technologies (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND With the proliferation of activity-tracking devices and other smart tools, more users leverage these technologies to track their physical and fitness-related activities. The research on the benefits (and limitations) of these devices tends to focus on the use of a single tool, leaving out the interactions among multiple technologies, and how these interactions influence the way users perceive affordances of activity trackers. OBJECTIVE The research on the benefits (and limitations) of fitness tacking devices to date tends to focus on the use of a single tool, leaving out the interactions among multiple technologies. Building from an ecological perspective, this work extend the research on activity-tracking devices by providing insight into the relationships among activity tracking devices and other fitness-related technologies within the device ecology of technologies around the user. METHODS This exploratory, qualitative study is based on 29 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with users of Fitbit fitness tracking devices. RESULTS Analysis of the interviews revealed competitive and complementary interactions among various fitness tracking devices, and explained how these interactions influenced the way users perceived affordances of fitness trackers in a device ecology. CONCLUSIONS The affordances of fitness devices are not enacted in isolation but are relational to those of other technological options and differing personal preferences and goals of the user.

Technology vs Ideology: How Far will Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Ledger Technology Transform Corporate Governance and Business?

“…There is an argument to be made that AI directorial organs may make more informed and consistent decisions than the fallible human, 304 but there is also countervailing expert evidence that supports human supremacy in deciding on qualitative or strategic matters due to the complexity of the human instinct and the visionary nature of forward-looking judgment. 305 There is unlikely to be conclusive 'science' that says AI are superior directorial organs than humans. 306 Indeed, although narrow AI can engage successfully in predictive analytics, namely statistical analysis and the identification of patterns of decision-making, 307 there is no evidence that AI is equipped to handle complex, strategic decision-making that entails the weighing of competing facts and evidence; nor has it been demonstrated that AI can understand the complex trade-offs that are required in board decisions.…”