Broadcasting personal data creates audience obligation that enforces behavior

Evidence

Others used lifestreaming to create accountability. Personal informatics enthusiasts used technology to record and monitor personal data, often using the internet to broadcast weight loss or health progress. For many, knowing that people were watching their data streams created a sense of obligation to an audience, much in the way that groups such as Weight Watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous use peer accountability to help members maintain desired behaviors. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 567

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to quantified-self movement and to Foucault’s panopticon, reframed here as voluntary peer surveillance. — connects to: Living publicly online normalizes constant scrutiny of one’s actions — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 382; Information sharing online functions as publicity, not privacy loss — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 530; Networked audiences enable public enforcement of social norms — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 575 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The rise of personalized web consumption ended broadcasters’ power to compel attention #complicates (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 921
• Structural differences between broadcasters and audiences cause systematic communication distortion #expands (0.80)
• Internet fame remains dependent on audience preferences and requires escalating self-disclosure #expands (0.78)
• Revealing mundane personal details is a deliberate audience-engagement branding strategy #exemplifies (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 659