The Quantified Self: for a Worse or Better You?
Event Info
Description
Join us for a lively discussion on the quantified self with some top-notch experts in the field!
Host: Irma Arianti, Experience Designer
Guests:
- Dr. Btihaj Ajana, Associate Professor and Marie Curie Fellow (COFUND) at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies where she is currently undertaking her research project on self-tracking and the Quantified Self culture. She is the author of Governing through Biometrics: The Biopolitics of Identity (Palgrave, 2013).
- Dr. Federica Lucivero, Marie Curie Fellow at the Global Health and Social Medicine department at King’s College London. Her current project investigates the ethical challenges of digital technologies in healthcare, specifically looking at mobile apps and personal health records. She serves as King’s representative in the Working Group on mHealth guidelines at the European Commission.
We all desire to improve on some level, to have a better life, to have a better career, or to simply feel better about ourselves. The “quantified self” is a recent trend that intends to help us do just that: the more we measure and track how we behave, the more we could improve ourselves.
Fitbit is a great example: measuring our heart rate and calories is to bring back science in our daily lives and help us adopting a better lifestyle. The quantified self is not limited to physical activities: we can measure our worth by counting our professional contacts on LinkedIn, or our popularity by our number of Facebook friends.
These tools can be very satisfying, they can help us setting realistic goals and measure our progress day after day. They have been however targeted by several criticisms: they tend to dictate what a "better" us means, and are not as effective as it seems. People might not be that much in love with their quantified selves after all.
So, do you believe in the quantified self? Have you seen it working for yourself, your patients or customers? And if not, what better way to help people achieve their personal goals?
During the evening, each guest expert will introduce what they would like to talk about. You will then choose which expert you would like to join for a group conversation. You will be encouraged to jump from one to another so that everybody has the opportunity to explore the theme from several angles, and speak face-to-face with many other guests and experts.
