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Understanding the lived experience
of self-tracking among runners…
by taking off their digital watch
The imposed withdrawal as a methodological tool for
approaching the embodiment of the digital technology
Brice FAVIER-AMBROSINI Matthieu QUIDU
Context of the study
Self-tracking, Quantified Self, Data tracking (Pharabot et al., 2013)
Transcribing in numbers, analysing, storing and/or sharing one’s
performances data (distance, speed, vertical drop, pace) and their
biological correlates (Heart rate…).
A lucrative market… full
of promises… (Soulé, 2022)
in spite of a slight
slowdown (Lupton, 2020)
A high rate of tool
abandonment after a short
period of use
(Clawson et al., 2015; Attig &
Franke, 2018; To gstad & Alsos, 2018)
Scope and object
Studying the self-tracking among amateur athletes as:
•a set of concrete and ordinary practices
What? When? How?
•a space of tacit knowledges and skills
Learn to interact with the device
•an emotional, sensorial and carnal lived experience
Incorporation, well-being vs alienation
Formalizing the daily uses of the connected tools
and the ordinary tactics of interaction
Temporal
differentiation and
alternation
Emergence and
adjustment in situ of
the goals
Contextualisation and
interpretation of the
(under)performances
This complex set of skills developed to interact with the
digital device allows the preservation of a high quality
running experience and a long-stand perseverance in the
activity and its quantification
Temporal
differentiation and
alternation
Emergence and
adjustment in situ of
the goals
Contextualisation and
interpretation of the
(under)performances
Describing the lived experiences of self-
tracking and the dynamics of embodiment
of the tool
Appropriation and incorporation:
transparency, routinization, automation
.
The Human-Machine
Integration: Entanglement
(Frauenberger, 2019)
Sensory ethnography +
Phenomenological sociology
(Pink et al., 2017; Sparkes, 2017;
Allen-Collinson, 2022 )
Theoretical stakes
.
A methodological choice :
Study “indirectly” the modes of appropriation of the
digital tool through its forced withdrawal
"Removal as a method" (Homewood et al., 2020).
=>Experimentally destabilizing lived experience to
document affective and sensory experiences that have
become routine or even subconscious.
Methodological device
.
2 commensurable sessions of running
With vs Without connected watch
Real-time self-explicitation of
one’s running experience
A semi-structured post-races interview
=>Reflective feedback on the experiential "disturbances"
caused by the defamiliarization
n=16 long-
standing self-
quantified
runners
The imposed removal of the watch is a
pervasive source of apprehension
Before the session During the session After the session
-postpone the session without
the watch.
-carry out the session with a
watch beforehand to get a
numerical reference.
-exclude the session without a
watch from the training
program.
-divert the use of dictaphone
to obtain time cues.
-Use the same route as with
the watch.
"I check the recording, 21', it works, I
try to make acalculation, but Istop
right away, it's not the goal today,
it's terrible, it pisses me off to be
such aslave".
-“I confessed"that the watch
was hidden in the bag”.
-“I didn't want to falsify my
training overload figures"
-look at start and finish times
to calculate speed.
Results (1)
The watch is a powerful incentive and
an embedded injunction
to speed up and surpass oneself (Etkin, 2016)
A positively felt incentive A negatively felt pressure
Removing the watch creates amotivational
vacuum:
-suppression of certain acceleration phases.
-need to compensate for absence with
stimulating mental images to challenge oneself.
-the session without the watch seems longer and
more painful.
Without the watch,
-a feeling of “recovered freedom".
-”freeing oneself from the conventions of time".
-A more “natural” and “respectful” rhythm.
-“I enjoy every stride, more relaxed".
Results (2)
"The watch made me speed up“
=> "agentivity" of the digital tool.
-Passive voice: The simple presence of the watch modifies and shapes
the relationship to the race.
-The watch acts on the subject as much as it is acted upon
The “personified” watch can take control
“It was the authority of the watch that was the problem. The numbers
played far too big a part in my self-esteem [...]. It was very authoritarian; I
had programmed it to beep if Ifell below a certain speed. I had turned the
tool into a despot; it was permanently on my wrist, like a handcuff".
Results (3)
Wearing a watch over-focuses attention
on numerical performance
Watchless
++ Opening up to the outside environment (a "rediscovered church")
and/or to running and breathing techniques and/or to daydreams.
=> amore contemplative relationship.
++ Access to new tactile sensations:the relationship with the ground.
-- Shifting attention to painful sensations and the effort involved, which
modifies the subjective perception of time.
Results (4)
The absence of the watch is physically
destabilizing
-“It feels very strange to have nothing on my wrist" => nudity.
-feeling of asymmetry and imbalance
=>the weight of the watch has been incorporated into the body
schema.
-inability to inhibit the reflex gesture of consulting one's watch.
Results (5)
Removing the watch may
(or may not) affect pace regulation
-I have NO idea of my pace... Iget confused":reference points annihilated,
but need to hold on to them through constant estimations.
=> the watch as aconstruct of certainties.
“I feel out of breath, so my first instinct isn't to slow down, but to look at my watch to see if
I've set off at apace that isn't mine".
Vs
-Extreme precision of sensory and numerical self-knowledge.
=> the watch as secondary corroboration
+ Incorporation of the watch functions.
=>the level of disturbance depends on the (inter-individual variable)
degree of finesse in perceptual skills and the credit given to them.
Results (6)
Removing the watch generates
the sensation of "erasing forever“ the jog
-The watch makes the work done "tangible" and "immortalizes" it.
"I need to wear it, otherwise Ifeel like I'm running for nothing".
"Creating a trace reassures me when Isee the number of traces".
"It's a commitment to yourself that you keep".
"I measure myself because it reassures me fundamentally to say to myself that I'm not doing
this for nothing, because I have the impression that if I ran without a watch, it would be for
nothing, because it wouldn't be listed in the great universe; it's tangible proof that I'm doing
something".
=>Archiving function.
Results (7)
.
Embedded and lasting effects of repeated interactions with the
connected watch: Entanglement and in-corporation.
"It doesn't just stop" (Clarke et al., 2022),
"Gone but not forgotten" (Homewood et al., 2020).
Experiential processes common to different removed digital tools?
"Returning to Bodily Sensations”,
"Losing Certainty”.
Discussion
«Sport addicts »
Physical practice, asceticism and quantified self
Research perspectives
Document and compare daily practices and
experiences of self-tracking among...
Anorexia sufferers
Elite runners
