Increasingly popular to keep track with apps and sports bracelets

What makes more and more people want to keep track of themselves, their habits, number of steps, weight, health, using apps, bracelets and other fitness trackers? Why do we want to measure ourselves, and also give businesses the opportunity to take part of our private data? These are some of the questions Ph D Student Vasileios Charitsis is seeking the answer to.

More and more technologies, apps and gadgets are showing up on the market. The interest to keep track and set goals for one’s health, exercise, eating habits, personal finance, sleep patterns, productivity at work and a range of other activities is growing. These data are also available for companies who can adjust their marketing or production.
- I am in the midst of conducting interviews, so there still remains a lot of analysis before I can draw any conclusions. The interviewed persons often say that they want to get to know themselves better, and gain control over their everyday life. They want to gain more knowledge about their habits, do more and find better ways of doing things, New gadgets are developed continuously. Now we see more of the bracelet type that you wear all the time which can measure several things. After pedometers and health apps, measuring sleep is the next big thing, says Vasileios Charitsis.
Valileios Charitsis is one of many Ph D Students at CTF. His research has a clear customer perspective. He examines, for example, how people and technology work together, how the lives of people are affected and the ethical issues that arise, such as who will have access to all the data about the health, eating habits, weight, sleep and other private things we collect about ourselves.