Self-tracking - the practice of capturing data about one鈥檚 own activities, often through wearable technology - is an ever-growing phenomenon, and one that is firmly established in the worlds of physical activity and public health. Recording statistics about our own activities is becoming commonplace, with our devices prompting us to measure things like step counts, heart rate, calories burned - even the quality of our sleep. Increasingly, this data is becoming linked to our perception of our own health and wellbeing, with healthcare providers even sometimes suggesting this kind of tracking as part of a programme of care.
Dr Lee Pretlove - Information School PhD graduate and ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow recently began his 12-month ESRC-funded Fellowship (through the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership) looking at self-tracking specifically in relation to running communities, building on his PhD project and examining what this kind of relationship to our data could mean for physical and mental health more broadly.
Awarded in 2022, Dr Pretlove鈥檚 PhD research was also on self-tracking in running, and forms the basis for his current research. Initially looking at activity apps like Strava - which track the distance, route, time, steps and calories burned on a given walk or run - Dr Pretlove wanted to see how runners interacted with their so-called 鈥榩ersonal digital archives鈥 - but he quickly realised that the project needed to broaden in scope to fully understand the issue.
鈥淭here is a whole practice around information and running that鈥檚 not just the data鈥, he explains. 鈥淪elf-tracking is actually quite a small part of it.鈥
To get a firsthand insight into runners鈥 experiences, Dr Pretlove went on runs with them whilst wearing a 360 camera, talking to them throughout the run (鈥淲e didn鈥檛 run very fast!鈥, he adds), with the camera capturing any time the runners glanced at their smart watches. Reviewing the footage, he found that experienced runners didn鈥檛 look very often, which got Dr Pretlove thinking about runners with less experience.
鈥淲hat about people who can鈥檛 buy the tech, or don鈥檛 know how to use it?鈥, he wondered. 鈥淚f a doctor prescribes someone to go and do more exercise, they might recommend the NHS 鈥楥ouch to 5k鈥 app, but there鈥檚 no follow-up on whether people know how to effectively do that. Can they afford a smartphone that can run the app? Do they know how to use it?鈥
These questions form one element of the basis for the ESRC fellowship project, which in part looks at the barriers to inclusion for self-tracking in running, as well as the behaviours associated with it. Does the idea of tying running to technology put people off and stop them seeing the broader health benefits?
鈥淚n our increasingly digital society, every activity has a piece of tech or a digital add-on available, and I鈥檓 really interested in the tension between getting people active and the tech tie-ins鈥, says Dr Pretlove. 鈥淩unning - or any kind of physical activity - doesn鈥檛 have to have a device attached to it!鈥
Dr Pretlove鈥檚 project - one of 7 fellowships awarded annually through the White Rose Consortium - is entitled 鈥淎ccess and use of running self-tracking data for public health鈥, and is mentored by Information School Professor of Data and Society Prof Jo Bates.
The project has four strands, the first of which makes up about 50% of the project and involves producing and submitting four journal articles and two conference papers, largely relating to Dr Pretlove鈥檚 existing PhD work. A paper will be submitted to Big Data and Society about how people and technologies interact in self-tracking environments, and the black box control that tech manufacturers and platforms have over the data.
鈥淚t鈥檚 looking at how the person sits between all of these information infrastructures and data鈥, explains Dr Pretlove.
A second paper will be submitted to Health and Place about Dr Pretlove鈥檚 360 camera method of participant interaction, and then a third paper is planned to be submitted to Archival Science looking at personal digital archives more generally.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got all this data about yourself, but where does it sit?鈥, asks Dr Pretlove. 鈥淗ow do you curate it? How do you look after it?鈥
The second strand of the fellowship involves new research alongside the development of a network of academics and engaging with non-academic partners for knowledge exchange. This will begin with networking with existing partnerships like the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub , to help Dr Pretlove frame his questions and gather suggestions for other contacts. Then, further engagement will involve public health-related organisations (such as GPs, parkrun UK, Sport England) and digital inclusion charities (like Rural Action Derbyshire, Citizens Online); an array of non-academic organisations interested in wellbeing, physical health and digital inclusion.
The workshop is intended as a dialogue between the partners and Dr Pretlove, finding out how future research would be valuable to them and their users.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not me telling them what research I want to do, it鈥檚 more saying 鈥業鈥檝e got some ideas, but what actually works for you on the ground?鈥欌, he explains of his desire to make his research as applicable as possible to these organisations and to society.
As well as understanding the barriers to inclusion with self-tracking in running, Dr Pretlove also hopes to understand the mental health aspect to adopting technology in running. During his PhD research, Dr Pretlove found that some experienced runners with good physical health were suffering negative mental health effects during the act of running as a direct result of their self-tracking; there was a disconnect between their bodies - which felt fine - and their devices, which were sometimes telling them they were doing something wrong.
Then there鈥檚 the social element to apps like Strava; just like all social media platforms, these can lead to comparing oneself to others and feeling inadequate as a result, even when, for example, you might be injured and therefore running less well. Add in the actively competitive angle to running (through races and the recording of times) and you have a cocktail for negative thought patterns.
鈥淲hen people are comparing themselves to other runners on these apps, it means the competition doesn鈥檛 stop just with actual races鈥, says Dr Pretlove.
鈥淚 do have a solution鈥, he continues: 鈥渄on鈥檛 wear a smart device when you run!鈥 You鈥檒l still get a time at an official race, he argues, or you can just use a traditional, timekeeping watch and look at it at the start and end of a run.
鈥淗owever, when you really get into running, there鈥檚 social capital in having these devices, and you do get questioned if you don鈥檛 have one鈥, he says. Some participants in his PhD research even told Dr Pretlove that they didn鈥檛 think you can participate in society without engaging in the kinds of big data structures provided by these types of apps and technologies.
Therefore, whether or not this is actually true, having to accept that they will wear these devices when running, Dr Pretlove wants to see how runners can adopt better practices to protect their mental health.
The fourth paper to be authored as part of the fellowship will come from research in these areas following the workshops, and will tie into the next strand of the project, which is public engagement. This will include a short video on the topic to be included in the 2024 ESRC Festival of Social Sciences in 91直播, as well as talks, non-academic publications, and a podcast.
Dr Pretlove recently gave a talk entitled 鈥淢y Pacing is Pants鈥 - the title being a quote from one of the participants in his PhD research - at a running club in the town of Ely, discussing the effects of running data on runners鈥 health and behaviours, with another edition of the talk in the 91直播 area in the planning stages. Dr Pretlove will also be going to the National Running Show in Birmingham this month to gather quotes from runners for his podcast, 鈥楧ecoding Digital Fitness鈥, for which he is interviewing both academics and the public and creating conversation between them. Though the first 4 or 5 episodes of the podcast will be around his research running data, as the title suggests, the longer-term plan is for the podcast to go beyond this and start to discuss wider information behaviours in physical activity.
All of these engagement activities are intended to make people more aware of the issues that are raised by Dr Pretlove鈥檚 research, and consider their own practices.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a big change I鈥檓 looking for鈥, he says. 鈥淚 just think people should question what they鈥檙e doing a bit more. Even if I can make one person think 鈥業 might do something differently鈥, that would be great. Maybe people might start to think 鈥業 might run today and not take my smart watch with me鈥
The final strand of the fellowship is personal development; learning how to be a better researcher. Dr Pretlove鈥檚 journey has already taken him from a non-academic career in Information Management into academia, and he picked running as his PhD topic due to a personal interest.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been fascinated by the way people manage their information鈥, he explains. 鈥淩unning was a starting point, but as part of my wider career I want to start looking at all forms of physical activity, and have my research become more inclusive beyond this small area.鈥
Dr Pretlove鈥檚 research style uses a small number of participants, but he goes very deep, with rich, qualitative research from in-depth conversations and interviews. As a result, he couldn鈥檛 generalise from his PhD research, but it was still very clear that some runners needed help, and he wondered whether it was a widespread problem.
鈥淲hat really struck me was the sense of history and connection that particularly experienced male runners had with their personal running data鈥, Dr Pretlove says. 鈥淚t was a part of their identity, and the idea of taking it away provoked a visceral, negative reaction.鈥
Female runners appeared not to care as much, so the potential gender split was yet another area that it seemed worth exploring. Why does this difference exist, and how does it tie into wider concerns about men鈥檚 mental health?
Whatever the answers, it seems abundantly clear that running is simply an exemplary microcosm of issues around self-tracking and physical and mental health that have much wider implications. Dr Pretlove hopes that using both his PhD and his current ESRC fellowship research as springboards, he can continue to widen his scope and seek to better peoples鈥 understanding of their own information behaviours and the effects they might be having.
