Communication Design Quarterly Feb 2018 Open Access

Quantifiable me: fitness and health trackers and the trope of holisticism

Candice A. Welhausen Auburn University

Abstract

As fitness trackers have proliferated, many now collect information about both physical and mental health indicators. Arguably, such capabilities promote the notion that achieving and maintaining health is holistic, pushing back against the mind/body divide that has long characterized how we tend to perceive health and disease in Western cultures (see Segal, 2005). In this article, the author argues that the visual (photographs and data visualizations) and language-based communication strategies used on Bellabeat Leaf's website, a smart jewelry device for women, employ a narrative of holisticism. Further, this narrative functions as a rhetorical trope that reinforces power relationships that align with a dominant underlying ideology of Western medicine---the notion that disease and illness can be controlled. The author proposes that future designs of the Leaf's smartphone application might allow users to visualize quantitative and select user-contributed qualitative, sensorial-based feedback to potentially provide a more balanced perspective of health.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2018-02-16
DOI
10.1145/3188387.3188393
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Open Access
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Topics
rhetorical criticism
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Acharya (2024)
    Designing Equitable and Inclusive mHealth Technology: Insights from Global Sout…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  2. Kirkscey (2021)
    mHealth Apps for Older Adults: A Method for Development and User Experience Des…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

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