Monday, May 31, 2010

Mobile Health - Some Thoughts

It was really interesting to listen to lots of very smart people trying to see how most effectively use mobile technology (smart phones, mobile apps, texting, etc) to encourage and promote healthy lifestyles - diet and exercise.  The presentations ranged from slightly creepy, an application that can detect from headphones every time you are eating and log that information, to inspiring - using mobile applications to promote AIDS awareness and prevention; using mobile phone cameras to have students make little HIV PSAs in hours.  The last one was courtesy of the University of Georgia's New Media Institute initiative Personal Media, Public Good.  It is well worth checking out.  Its Director Dr. Scott Shamp made an inspiring presentation. 

However, as I was listening to 50+ speakers dealing with issues behind enabling people to constantly and consistently monitor their bodies, record their information and alter their behaviors, I couldn't help but wonder if the vision here is a state where nothing can or should exist outside of digital technology.  We have been a subject to technology for a long time, so that's not new, but digitality introduces a new wave of thinking with and about technology: there is no value anymore in not knowing, not monitoring.  Experience then is understood solely in terms of information that it can generate.   

If the question that the conference wrestled with is how to keep people healthy then we must ask how mobile technology defines health.  What does it mean to be healthy on your phone?  And who profits and benefits from keeping people healthy?  The idea seems to be is that the more we can push people into donating and monitoring information the healthier we will be.  Behavior change then becomes about your social networks and the social world we live in.  These are problematic issues that need to be addressed.

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