Looking Back in Wonder: How Self-Monitoring Technologies Can Help Us Better Understand Ourselves

Abstract

As computing devices become more pervasive, our daily activities start generating a vast amount of information that could be exploited for helping us better understand ourselves. In this paper we present a system that uses easily available data correlated into a story-based representation aimed at providing users with a better understanding of their lifestyles. While this is still work in progress, we believe that it provides valuable insights into the design of such systems. Our initial findings show that user data generated through a person’s daily activities can reveal a wealth of valuable information which they can use to adjust and improve their lifestyles.