By discursively analyzing blogs and popular press articles written by people who discontinued using Fitbit, this article reveals the incongruities between the tracking of our bodily information, the communication of that bodily information via wearables, and the promises of changing of users’ attitudes and behaviors with how wearables are actually used in practice. The discourses of discontinuance in this analysis also reveal how former Fitbit engenders feelings of disconnection and may affect users in detrimental ways. As a result, and despite the predominant framing and conceptualization of wearables as “motivating,” “empowering,” and “useful” (self)surveillance tools, I argue that Fitbit is an example of a failure both of self-surveillance and of wearable communication for helping users achieve their health and fitness goals. Finally, I argue that we need to start thinking about wearable communication like other forms of communication that are inherently inconsistent and contradictory, and that can be accepted, negotiated, or rejected by users. Instead of focusing on the disciplinary or controlling potentials of wearables as a form of self-surveillance, this paper considers the resistance and negotiations inherent in the (dis)use of wearables, and demonstrates the necessity of exploring both wearables and surveillance itself in relation to fundamental understandings of communication.

中文翻译：

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可穿戴通信的自我监控失败

通过对停止使用 Fitbit 的人撰写的博客和流行新闻文章的散漫分析，本文揭示了跟踪我们的身体信息、通过可穿戴设备传播该身体信息与改变用户态度和行为的承诺之间的不协调。可穿戴设备在实践中的实际使用情况。本分析中关于中断的论述还揭示了前 Fitbit 如何产生中断感，并可能以有害的方式影响用户。因此，尽管可穿戴设备的主要框架和概念化为“激励”、“赋权”和“有用”的（自我）监视工具，但我认为 Fitbit 是自我监视和可穿戴设备失败的一个例子帮助用户实现健康和健身目标的沟通。最后，我认为我们需要开始考虑可穿戴通信，就像其他固有的不一致和矛盾的通信形式一样，可以被用户接受、协商或拒绝。本文没有将可穿戴设备的纪律或控制潜力作为一种自我监视的形式，而是考虑可穿戴设备的（不）使用中固有的阻力和协商，并论证了探索可穿戴设备和监视本身的必要性。对沟通的基本理解。