Lifelogging has recently jumped into the mainstream as more and more people adopt the practice to enhance health and wellbeing. This practice includes digitally researching or reproducing every detail of everyday life. These new digital documents both free expression and collect a new host of metrics like documentary photos, fitness tracked activities, places traveled, and biopsychosocial statistics. Kunal Kalro, the CEO of health technology company Fathom, based in Melbourne, is one such example. More than 10 years ago, Kalro lost his father to heart disease. This loss was a major impetus for him to start tracking his health data, which has had a radical positive effect on his life.
Tracking progress Kalro started small, tracking his steps and workouts on a fitness tracker that displays steps walked per day. Today, he has daily access to his health metrics and monitors them with the same care. His personal experience underscores the power of lifelogging to cultivate healthier behaviors and improve consciousness about one’s body.
Dr. Julia Soares, a cognitive researcher at Mississippi State University, examines how digital technologies impact our memories. Her recent research on lifelogging has shown that the positives and negatives can have opposing outcomes for our cognition. Finally, she underscores the importance of using digital tools intentionally. Without a smart plan, it’s easy to drown in the data. Justifying your work with more data may sound like a great idea.
The Benefits of Lifelogging
IHKL B2 Lifelogging also holds great potential for people who want to age more gracefully and with a greater quality of life. As Dr. Soares explains, when used with intention, these technologies can help trigger memories and enhance quality of life.
“You can come to some really useful insights by collecting all of this data,” – Dr. Soares
Kalro seems to feel the same way, explaining that tracking his health has helped him feel “more in sync” with his body. He attributes lifelogging with helping him gradually get back to healthier behavior.
“Over a period of time, it nudges you back into good behaviour,” – Kunal Kalro
Kalro has noticed real, physical changes in his health metrics from lifestyle changes, including cutting out caffeine.
“I can notice and I will see the difference in my heart rate variability overnight when I’m sleeping if I’ve had caffeine after midday versus before,” – Kunal Kalro
From the perspective of someone engaging in it, lifelogging dramatically increases self-knowledge. It is an incredibly powerful tool for the proactive management of our health and wellbeing.
The Challenges of Data Overload
Though it has many promising advantages, lifelogging presents difficult hurdles. Dr. Soares cautions that it’s not hard for people to get buried by the amount of data they store. Unless there is deliberate consideration of this data, it runs the risk of becoming worthless.
“If you’re not paying attention to the data, then it just collects up,” – Dr. Soares
Thus becomes the larger question of how well people will be able to take advantage of lifelogging technology to enrich memory and cognitive ability. Dr. Soares’ research finds that these digital tools are effective in helping participants improve memory retrieval. If not used smartly, they can be a major stumbling block to innovation. In her research, she found that photography is an external focus of attention that disrupts the encoding of memories.
“I have a couple of studies where we’ve found that taking photos can impair memory,” – Dr. Soares
In a recent study, participants were directed to photograph artworks with specified guidelines. They even forgot more about those pieces than participants who did not take any photos. This suggests that while lifelogging may assist in recording information, it may inadvertently detract from the ability to remember it.
Intentional Use of Technology
Intentional and strategic engagement with emerging lifelogging practices will be key to realizing their full potential. Dr. Soares underscored the need for people to be more discerning in how they engage with their data.
“How is this going to cue my retrieval later on? It should be something that I want to remember alongside the photo,” – Dr. Soares
Her findings demonstrate a common phenomenon in which people overestimate their level of expertise. This occurs because, without a purposeful strategy, they use digital devices almost exclusively as tools for information retrieval.
“Even if they ask them really carefully, ‘What do you know? What is in your brain?’, people can sometimes overestimate what they know as a result of using internet search,” – Dr. Soares
This stresses the importance of integrating lifelogging into the fabric of our everyday lives. In so doing, we can actually start to take action on the data we collect.
