Before starting to reflect on my data footprint, I had believed that I did not produce that much data, like how much digital data can I actually produce? Then I realized I have 4 devices that I use every. single. day. My watch tracking my every move, literally. My phone, iPad, and computer. At that realization, I was very overwhelmed. I did not know where to start so I just started going through the screen time on the devices, all of which are fairly high because I am a week and a half into a quarantine. Upon this reflection, I realized that all of the data that I have produced in the last week of this journal would automatically be skewed because I had lost the regularity of my routine. Where I normally would have data that showed my movement from the house to the Y, the grocery store, a drive, but nothing. The only movement I have had is from my room to the kitchen, maybe just outside of the house to the beach. On top of this, I did not have my normal YMCA check-ins, workout data, grocery store visits, gas. What I did have was exorbitant amounts of time on streaming services and loads of notifications from my watch telling me to get back on my routine. I decided that for my data journal, I wanted to look at the discrepancies in my routine data footprints to my quarantine data footprint.

I found it rather interesting to first look at some of my watch data, specifically the daily activity tracker. I like to wear my watch every day, no matter what, and I only take it off to sleep so that it can charge up and be ready for the next day. I included a screenshot of my activity data and it interestingly reflects the time I have been in quarantine rather well. I went into quarantine on the 25th, a day where I barely had any activity. My data since then has been very inconsistent in comparison to the rest of the month of October.

I also decided to take a look at a few of the specific days, the 24th- the day before quarantine, and the 29th.

Looking at this data now I am realizing that even though I thought my watch was recording the data correctly, it was not all completely correct. Sometimes the watch records standing hours falsely. I did not exercise at all on the 29th, but it recorded that I was active for 4 minutes. Something that I also did not realize before this was the amount of detail that is recorded for every workout I do. The place, the temperature, the humidity, the exact times. I also have the power to share my daily activity with my friends in an easy way, while simultaneously being able to track the other person’s daily data, what they did, where they did it, the weather at that location, etc.

But perhaps the most overwhelming is that this was two days, on one device. I can go back to when I first got this watch and look at the data for every day that I have worn it. The device compiles all of this information about me, my heart rate, my trends, and comes up with tailored suggestions for me, not unlike the ads that I receive on my phone. One thing I have noticed on my phone, which is connected to my watch, is that I have more ads geared toward surfing. That is kind of unnerving but here we are. I get ads about wetsuits, Instagram shows me surfing videos, my Facebook shows me surfboard giveaways. Much of my tailored data is centered around this hobby that I track on my watch. My watch has created a representation of me that is only partially true but yet is present in all of my digital endeavors.