CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abstract
Personal informatics (PI) technologies allow users to collect data about aspects of their lifestyle like mood or step count.
Though teens increasingly encounter and use such technologies, little is known about how they ascribe meaning to their own
PI activities. We report a qualitative study of the PI experiences of eighteen teens (aged 14 – 17). Following a learning phase
focused on interpreting PI data, participants chose a personal goal that interested them and a PI tool to track it for 4-8 weeks
in everyday contexts. Participants proved to be competent, flexible users of PI tools, tracking a range of meaningful life factors,
from ‘worries’ to ‘exercise’; they valued learning about ‘natural patterns’ in their lives and were motivated to manage their
emotions and evaluate whether they were doing the right thing. Our findings contribute to understanding how young people
can engage in appropriation and interpretation of PI data – suggesting opportunities for educational interventions and design
