research-article

Echoes from the past: how technology mediated reflection improves well-being

Authors:

Alan Walendowski,

Victoria Hollis,

Steve WhittakerAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Pages 1071 - 1080

https://doi.org/10.1145/2470654.2466137

Published: 27 April 2013 Publication History

Abstract

As people document more of their lives online, some recent systems are encouraging people to later revisit those recordings, a practice we're calling technology-mediated reflection (TMR). Since we know that unmediated reflection benefits psychological well-being, we explored whether and how TMR affects well-being. We built Echo, a smartphone application for recording everyday experiences and reflecting on them later. We conducted three system deployments with 44 users who generated over 12,000 recordings and reflections. We found that TMR improves well-being as assessed by four psychological metrics. By analyzing the content of these entries we discovered two mechanisms that explain this improvement. We also report benefits of very long-term TMR.

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Cited By

Akiri SMisal VTaherzadeh SJenkins JWilliams GMentis HKleinsmith A(2024)Enhancing Stress Understanding Through Team Reflection: Technology-Driven Insights in High-Stress Training ScenariosProceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work10.1145/3663384.3663385(1-18)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663384.3663385
Barker-Canler MGooch DVan Der Linden JPetre M(2024)Flexible Minimalist Self-Tracking to Support Individual ReflectionACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/366033931:3(1-35)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660339
Loerakker MNiess JWoźniak P(2024)Technology which Makes You ThinkProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36596158:2(1-24)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
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Index Terms

Echoes from the past: how technology mediated reflection improves well-being
1. Human-centered computing

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2013

3550 pages

ISBN:9781450318990

DOI:10.1145/2470654

General Chair:
Wendy E. Mackay
INRIA
,
Program Chairs:
Stephen Brewster
Glasgow University
,
Susanne Bødker
University of Aarhus

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 27 April 2013

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CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 27 - May 2, 2013

Paris, France

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CHI '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 392 of 1,963 submissions, 20%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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Cited By

Akiri SMisal VTaherzadeh SJenkins JWilliams GMentis HKleinsmith A(2024)Enhancing Stress Understanding Through Team Reflection: Technology-Driven Insights in High-Stress Training ScenariosProceedings of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work10.1145/3663384.3663385(1-18)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3663384.3663385
Barker-Canler MGooch DVan Der Linden JPetre M(2024)Flexible Minimalist Self-Tracking to Support Individual ReflectionACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/366033931:3(1-35)Online publication date: 23-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3660339
Loerakker MNiess JWoźniak P(2024)Technology which Makes You ThinkProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36596158:2(1-24)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3659615
Xu SChen CLiu ZJin XYuan LYan YQu H(2024)Memory Reviver: Supporting Photo-Collection Reminiscence for People with Visual Impairment via a Proactive ChatbotProceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3654777.3676336(1-17)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
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Seberger JChoung HSnyder JDavid P(2024)Better Living Through Creepy Technology? Exploring Tensions Between a Novel Class of Well-Being Apps and Affective Discomfort in App CultureProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36372998:CSCW1(1-39)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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Stefanidi EWassmann JWoźniak PSpellmeyer GRogers YNiess J(2024)MoodGems: Designing for the Well-being of Children with ADHD and their Families at HomeProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3655795(480-494)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
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Li JHe CHu JJia BHalevy AMa X(2024)DiaryHelper: Exploring the Use of an Automatic Contextual Information Recording Agent for Elicitation Diary StudyProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642853(1-16)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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Jung GPark SLee U(2024)DeepStress: Supporting Stressful Context Sensemaking in Personal Informatics Systems Using a Quasi-experimental ApproachProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642766(1-18)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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