A Measured Life
In our everyday life, we do things regularly without even thinking about them. Take walking, eating, breathing as an example. Also, as a part of the media culture, we spend our time of different platforms without thinking further than our uploads, likes, shares and follows. We believe those actions are invisible as if they don’t count because they don’t exist physically. But in fact, those actions are visible. Not only visible but also can be measured. Those measurable objects are used for judging, calculating and categorize certain subjects and matters. In such happenings, the power of metrics shows up. According to Beer, “metrics create rigid numerical edge-points, or final boundaries that set the score and become the rules and norms of the game.” (2016). In other words, metrics are so powerful that they affect our norms and have become somehow part of our values.
My watch Loop by Polar is a health tracking device. It tracks my movement, steps, calories I burn, sleeping hours and also calculates my progress through my days. Moreover, when Loop tracks my movement and notices my laziness (after calculation) it shows statements as “Time for A Run”, “Time to Move” and “To Jog”. Also, Loop creates goals for me. For example, weight goal.
Loop does not only order me to move or run but also tell me when to stop. For example, if my activity bar is full after a very intense workout, a “100%” shows up. In other words, you have reached your goal for today you can now stop.
By the end of each week, I sync the data on my watch to see my records and whether I have improved or not. The program shows a full analysis of my health records. After viewing each day by it self, I realize some results shown are wrong or inaccurate. Because, for example, the statistics show for a certain day that I did not reach my daily goal, but in reality I did. But on that day particularly I forgot my watch my home all day. We believe that a programmed watch could never go wrong. “Metrics bring with them a sense of objectivity, they project legitimacy and make decisions seem implicitly fair and impartial” (Beer, 2016 ).
On this particular week, my daily activiy goal shows that i have reached on 21% of it. In reality, it must be much higher. On Monday, Tuesday and Wedensday I went to the gym and on Thursday I went skiing. Thus, logically, I do not deserve a 21% only.
My Health application on my phone shows that on Jan 20, 2017 I did 7,116 step. However, my health tracking watch shows that I did 9,824 steps.
Since I have started wearing this watch, I started to judge my self upon its analysis. I compared myself and noticed progress. To a certain limit, I believed that this is watch is somehow one of the reasons behind my health improvement. If the analysis of my health record shows a descending graph, I feel that I have entered the danger zone. Loop has become a part of my life. “Metrics have become very much a material reality once they are drawn upon or adopted into social and cultural practice” (Beer, 2016)
“Metrics are the resource through which we know that world” (Beer). Metrics being power is not something new. It has been this way since the Greeks and continue all the way till today and will never lose its power.
