Vortrag - Karola Kreitmair (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Wearable Technology and the Question of Empowerment

Wearable and digital behavioral technology is often claimed to empower the user by giving her control over her health, her behavior, and her mental activity. However, little is included about what the notion of empowerment actually entails. I make a distinction between two kinds of empowerment and delineate the features of each kind. I then consider under which conditions wearable and digital behavioral technology actually fulfill these features of each kind of empowerment. I argue that with certain uses of wearable and digital behavioral technology, empowerment of the kind that we may care about more, may actually be diminished