Wearable Devices and Bodies

“Do you know your body?”

We know the face, the limbs, that the legs can walk, that the stomach and intestines can hold and digest the food we eat, and that the heart can constantly contract and stretch to supply fresh blood throughout the body ...... but we may not know our bodies as well as we think we do. Since 2013, the birth of wearable devices has turned these abstract physical meanings into specific data that people can readily grasp. As the name suggests, it is a portable device worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothing or accessories, which can be powerfully enabled by software support as well as data interaction and cloud-based interaction.

The worldwide shipping volume of wearables devices was 266.3 million units in 2020 and is expected to reach 776.23 million units by 2026. Fitbit, for example, has become one of the most popular brands in the wearables industry among several commercially available physical activity tracker brands, with over 100 million devices sold worldwide. And there was a significant increase in user activity in the Fitbit community during the post-pandemic period after 2019. Thousands of people are using this little wearable device to monitor their bodies, and having a healthy body is undoubtedly the strongest line of defense when epidemics are killing so many people. Next, let's look at how the Fitbit community is accessing and sharing this data, and using it to understand and train their bodies. Has people's lifestyles and emotional dispositions been changed during the pandemic?

The Fitbit community encourages its users to give nicknames, geographical locations and their feedbacks, and many users have discussed their personal experience, which allows our data have signs to follow.

“When I woke up from my sleep, the Fitbit monitoring started too.”

When checking these feedbacks of Fitbit community, a user with the called "Jogger" left a diary of his Fitbit use during the pandemic. In this diary, Jogger started it with a wonderful sleep. After eight hours of sleep, Fitbit monitored his sleep heart rate and eye movement frequency, and his sleep score was as high as 84. Jogger then began to prepare his breakfast. Fitbit app can help users to create a diet plan by recording the Jogger's food intake each day. It can be found at the tap Nutrition & Body section under Goals, then Under Nutrition, find the option to start a food plan." "When I want to eat some high-calorie food like cake, ice cream, etc., Fitbit will count their calories and dissuade me in time when it exceeds the standard." Jogger wrote: "Thanks to Fitbit! Without it, I don't know how much junk food and snacks I would have eaten without shame.”

Because of pandemic, a protracted blockade began. The closure of gyms and parks and the restrictions on transport options have made many people realize that their exercise patterns need to be changed. Jogger started to try some indoor fitness classes such as squats, push-ups, and sit-ups. Like Jogger, many people in the community have chosen to convert the guest room in their homes so that it can become a small dance studio or gym. Although step monitoring is hampered by lockdown, Fitbit can still monitor most of the user's indoor workouts such as weights and yoga. Real-time heart rate zone can report people' aerobic fitness levels and the guided breathing function can personalize breathing exercises based on the user's heart rate, allowing the user to relax anytime. Another important Fitbit feature that also impressed Jogger is SpO2 and skin temperature monitoring. Based on oxygen levels in the blood and tracking changes in skin temperature, users can easily detect symptoms of fever and illness.

"I got covid. Yes. I don't know how I got it, maybe shopping at the supermarket. I had a rough week, and before that my Fitbit told me that my skin temperature was getting higher, and I thought it was just Fever from the flu... After that my blood oxygen levels dropped to a certain extent, and I realized I had covid. I took immediate steps: quarantined, took medicine, and it took about a week for me to recover.”

Jogger's notes in his notes refer to such a grueling experience, as he struggles to tell people the importance of the information provided by SpO2, and the lung injury makes it difficult for him to exercise now.

"It's an early warning, and it's a life-or-death decision."

Thanks to Jogger for the review, which gave us the most intuitive feel for analyzing the Fitbit's features and people's feedback on it. When we collected data from the Fitbit community and collated it into visual charts, we found that the sentiment bias of Fitbit users regarding lifestyle was largely positive or neutral like Jogger’s. During the epidemic and its later stages. Increasingly, users are sharing training, state of daily life and suggestions for products in the online community. The data findings show that nearly 72% of the content has a more positive bias and that users express their emotions more strongly. They are willing to ask questions enthusiastically in the online community and help other users with their products and life problems. However, there is still many negative emotional biases regarding frustrations about features not being added quickly enough and there is a feeling of not being heard and responded to by Fitbit itself.

In summary, everyone is keen on share daily training with Fitbit during the epic period. They encourage each other, share Fitbit's skills in assisting home sports, share pictures of pets and food, and hope to establish an online communication page as soon as possible. At the same time, users also continue to update their expectations for the adjustment of Fitbit's existing functions and the establishment of new functions in the community. Fitbit has deeply changed the way people know their bodies and the way they live their lives after the epidemic.