Encountering a Quantified Past

It is important to understand the means and occasions by which a quantified past might be encountered. In some cases, past data was actively sought out; in other examples, we can see ways in which the past is brought to bear more implicitly through features of the interaction.

Looking back purposively takes place for several reasons, and within different rhythms of reflection. Many participants, especially those recording events such as a run or a cycle, described either immediate reflecting on the data, or reflecting at the end of the day, as its original and central function. At this point, specific details such as times, top speeds, calories and leaderboards are important to assess one’s ‘effort’ and progress. Peter, an experienced cyclist who used the competitive tracking app Strava18, illustrates this: “My interest originally was where have I been, what speed did I do. Ok, forget about it. But it's kind of extended beyond that, the fact that they store it.”

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However, like Jason, who records his gym workouts using the Fitocracy19 app, as data accumulates over time it can take on further values. “I think it started off as a tracking thing, but I think more recently it's just become a useful log.”

As these examples suggest, participants described a variety of motivations for looking back at recent history in their data. In Becky’s case, this might be diagnostic as she looked back at her Moves data and the events leading up to her illness. Providing a quick overview of her recent past, Becky might also turn to Moves to ask “what happened this week?” or “why am I tired this week?” Others also browsed their data in order to account for something: Aaron used an app to keep track of his spending, and found he would look back “when you get a surprise” or “something has gone wrong” with his finances. This sort of checking up, on a daily, weekly or perhaps monthly basis is also a way “to keep myself honest” (Jason, Fitocracy), and is commonly supported by applications like Moves, MyFitnessPal and Misfit Shine (Figure 4) through daily or weekly summaries of the data. As Ivan explains, reflecting on his Moves data “the way it breaks it down for you, it just encourages you to look at it per day.” The Nike+ running app, however, also displays the most recent runs on the main dashboard. Suzanne frequently uses recent, or past runs recorded with Runkeeper20 as a source of confidence and inspiration. “It's the knowing that I can do it, and the thinking that I can get better. And so the fact that I've got it on there shows me that I can.”

In a more implicit way, past entries can provide a sense of progress and continuity with the past. Lily described the pressure and pride in maintaining a continuous 135-day streak of using the MyFitnessPal app.

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Figure 4: A daily view from Lily’s Misfit Shine ap.

“And then like the other day… I'd forgotten to put any data in and I had this panic at the end of the day that it was gonna get to midnight and I would have broken my streak! I was really worried about it! I was like you can't break 135-day streak, that's terrible!” (Lily, MyFitnessPal)

Many apps, especially those concerning fitness, support the comparison of past and present achievements. Highlighting individual records are the most explicit ways of doing this; Strava’s dissection of a route into many discrete sections allows many points of comparison and competition with previous efforts. By beating a record or topping a leaderboard, the present data implicitly draws its entire meaning in relation to the past. Graphs literally draw a line from the past to the present. In Lily’s case, she frequently refers to a graph of her weight loss (Figure 5) that shows how she rapidly lost weight to begin with and has since plateaued. Interestingly, she frequently manipulates the graph to show it over the longest time frame (over 6 months, rather than 3) to emphasise the progress she has made. This connects her present with a past where she lost a lot of weight (and hence could do so again).

Figure 5: Graph of weight loss in MyFitnessPal app with adjustable time axis.

On occasion, particular data and “certain stats” (Peter, Strava) can become marked out as somehow important: a record number of steps; winning a triathlon; a ‘Coast-to-Coast’ bike ride; a good week of healthy meals.

"So I have kept this week, glancing back at that one.... I do keep going back, going hmm that was a good day." (Lily, Misfit Shine)

Sometimes this data can be set aside as it represents some kind of record, is shared with friends, or relates to a clearly remembered event, which can be easily revisited. Becky reckons she has revisited data surrounding her development of pneumonia at least ten times, and it has become uniquely interwoven with the way she recounts that period of her life as one of stress and over-activity. However, much data is not exceptional in this way or may represent a past, which is of little interest or value to their present, and should perhaps even be forgotten.

“Because if I'd lost like... say I had lost two stone in the last 6 months, I would be bothered [if I lost the data] because it would be a measure of that success, whereas at the moment this is just a reflection of my failure.” (Colette, MFP)

Because Collette’s data only shows a current status of not having lost weight, rather than a change or an achievement, it has limited purchase on the present. In this way, data can fall out of use and meaning, until such a time as it becomes significant again. Perhaps returning to tracking after a long injury, and seeking a benchmark or inspiration or the need to account for something like an illness. However, for several participants, it was only the unusual case of talking about data in an interview which brought their data to light again.

The situation is reminiscent of the way Radley (1990) describes the “mix of international and fortuitous circumstance surrounding memory involving things” (p. 55, 1990).

Borrowing Radley’s language, a trajectory emerges of data passing from a functional object – “through which to achieve ends within a particular time and space” – to become “a memento or historic artefact with which to define the world of which it was a part” (p. 57, 1990).

Participants here are using their data on a daily basis to lose weight, to run faster, to save money, to listen and share new music. But as their data is stored, it can become a way to define and reconstruct the past towards some present activity. Although in several cases this activity is one of reminiscence, this remains “a partial view of the role of artefacts in people’s remembering” (p. 51, 1990). Examples here show the way in which present data derives meaning from the prior record, and ways in which features such as ‘records’, ‘streaks’, and ‘summaries’ bring the past and present into relation. And in fitness related contexts, these encounters are broadly oriented to support ongoing present efforts to sustain an activity or motivation.

Relating this study to Radley’s work underlines a basic premise of the thesis: that data can be oriented to remembering as much as any other object - an antique cigarette lighter, family letters, gas masks in a museum to borrow some examples. It speaks of the way in which, almost accidentally at times, data inevitably documents and represents people’s

lives. The work of the remainder of this chapter and thesis is to develop ways in which remembering with data might be perceived as distinctive.