Journal article
Better Living Through Creepy Technology? Exploring Tensions Between a Novel Class of Well-Being Apps and Affective Discomfort in App Culture
Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, v 8(CSCW1), pp 1-39
23 Apr 2024
Abstract
Well-being apps promise to improve people's lives. Yet evidence shows that the data-hungry app culture that contextualizes well-being apps normalizes the user experience of affective discomfort. This apparent contradiction raises a difficult question: Is it responsible to ask people to improve their well-being by engaging further with an app culture that normalizes affective discomfort? We approached this question by deploying an online, scenario-based survey (n=688) about a fictional, but realistic well-being app called "Thalia." Thalia represents a novel class of well-being apps that are envisioned to: (i) utilize AI-driven facial recognition and analysis; and (ii) collect data for use in medical contexts. We found that people perceived Thalia to be affectively discomfiting even as they judged Thalia to be beneficial. Such findings imply a trade-off between 'better living through technology' and the negative affective implications of surveillance capitalistic app culture. Such a trade-off necessitates high-level analysis of just what "well-being" means in the context of contemporary app culture. Through analysis and discussion, we explore a troubling interplay between novel well-being apps and affective discomfort that requires careful attention from HCI researchers if human-centered well-being -- flourishing -- is truly what our products are intended to foster.
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10 citations in Scopus
Details
- Title
- Better Living Through Creepy Technology? Exploring Tensions Between a Novel Class of Well-Being Apps and Affective Discomfort in App Culture
- Creators
- John S. Seberger - Drexel UniversityHyesun Choung - Michigan State UniversityJaime Snyder - University of WashingtonPrabu David - Rochester Institute of Technology
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the ACM on human-computer interaction, v 8(CSCW1), pp 1-39
- Publisher
- ACM
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85193595028
- Other Identifier
- 991021872715704721