We figured out who, how, and most importantly why, records every step they take. And we also gathered gadgets and apps for those who want to join in.
What Is It
Lifelog is a term that gave birth to an entire movement of Lifelogging. The first person who decided to meticulously record his life was Robert Shields. He described in short notes every five minutes of his life for 25 years from 1972 to 1997. In the end, he set a record as the owner of the most voluminous diary – it contains 37 million words.
The current gained popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s. It was then that the development of the Internet and technology allowed people to record their lives. Steve Mann was the first person who tried to wear a computer to record life around him. This trend is also called Quantified Self; the idea is that a person is a collection of data. People could take a lot more pictures than before, store a lot more information about themselves and distribute it online. Back then, not many people thought about privacy and digital security.
The purpose of lifelogging is to record all life events, significant and insignificant. Take photos, keep a text diary, a jogging diary, a mental or physical health diary. Or maybe all at once – that’s what a “life journal” is all about.
Why People Do It
In the accelerating world of social media and advanced technology, much of our modern lives slip through the cracks. Lifeloggers try not to miss anything, to record all of their even minor experiences. They don’t rely on their memory, which can distort events, but meticulously record everything.
Most people would consider it foolishness and a waste of time. But Lifelogging helps you combat FOMO. This kind of diary helps to prove to yourself otherwise. For example, you ate a delicious lunch today or played at a live casino in Canada for the first time. Or saw a friend. And you can return to this memory at any time.
It’s also helpful for people with chronic physical or mental illnesses. They can track their recovery and monitor their symptoms. The same goes for athletes who keep track of their progress.
Gadgets for Lifelogging
The most controversial thing about Lifelogging is the special gadgets. These are mostly fitness trackers, smart watches, and even special cameras. If everything is more or less clear with the first and second, they measure heart rate, count steps and sleep phases, then with the latter everything is ambiguous.
There are several types of devices: compact cameras and smart glasses. They record literally everything that happens to a person during the day.
For example, Google and Snapchat have released their glasses with photo and video recording functions. At any given moment, the user can tap on them and take a picture of what they see. On marketplaces, you can find a lot of personal-logging devices – little cameras on pegs that cling to clothing and take 2,000 pictures a day. Then the user can look through them and choose the one he likes.
Even the ones you don’t really want to remember. This is completely against the rules of privacy, because other people, who did not give their consent, get into the lens. In addition, the user’s own data is not fully protected: the cloud has been hacked many times before. Everyone with a smartphone has this risk. But for owners of smart glasses, hackers can steal 2,000 photos from the toilet.
And yet people buy rather expensive accessories to record everything around them – because they don’t want to miss out on their lives by forgetting any moments. For some, fitness trackers and Lifelogging gadgets can help heal. For example, people with a weak heart can closely monitor their heartbeat and see how it changes from day to day.
Apps for Lifelogging
If you’re not ready to spend money on gadgets yet, but you want to try personal blogging, we’ve made a small selection of apps for all occasions. With these apps, not one second will slip away from you.
Habitica
One of the most unusual apps here. Habitica is a task planner and habit tracker. For example, you want to stop eating sweets and you score yourself that habit in the app. Now you need to keep track of how many times you’ve snapped and eaten brownies.
Habitica is an ordinary task planner, but with gamification. Everything is built on an RPG system. The user creates a character, which will be pumped up as tasks and obligations are fulfilled. That is, if you lasted a week without sweets and completed several working tasks, you get experience and level up, if you fail, you lose your life. It’s like any RPG game.
You can join in groups and pass the dungeons and share the experience. It’s a real online game, but instead of adventure work tasks. It’s suitable for those who want to try their hand at personal blogging, but can’t find the motivation. Games have long since learned how to draw users into themselves. Especially since you can track your progress right on your game avatar.
Daylio
Daylio is a pumped up diary that will appeal to anyone who likes to keep diaries. The principle of the app is to log in every day and leave a note on how your day went. You choose your mood, check off your activities for the day, close some tasks and pour out your soul in short text.
Daylio gives you the purest experience of lifelogging, because you record your surroundings and emotions. And then the app analyzes your mood and shows how the user was feeling that month. All in all, it’s the most pumped up diary you can keep.
Lifesum
An app for those who want to lose weight or just balance their diet. Lifesum is the same diary, only focused on calorie counting. You first need to select the user’s goal: to gain, lose, or maintain your weight. The app automatically calculates calorie limits, trans fats, carbs and so on. In the paid version of the app, the user also gets a prepared diet and recipes.
And then it’s on to Lifelogging. You eat a hot dog – you record the calories in the app. You drink a glass of water – you write it down. If you find a new recipe, you can also record it in the app.
Nike Training Club
Anyone who is active in sports and records their achievements has already encountered this type of Lifelogging. As with all other apps, the user records the number of steps, exercises in the gym or runs. Then you can always look at your progress and share it with friends.
This is not necessarily the narcissism that athletes are often accused of – it all has practical benefits. You can always see how much your fitness has improved.
Flo
Flo is an example of useful lifelogging. It’s an app for tracking your menstrual cycle. Users record data about their bodies and enter the dates of the beginning and end of the cycle into the program, and then Flo itself will give hints and remind them that their period is about to start.
Besides Lifelogging, Flo will give the user all kinds of advice based on the data. This is the most illustrative example of how writing about yourself can benefit a person.
Apple Health and Google Fit
In fact, it could be any health statistics app. Google has them, and there are dozens of such apps in marketplaces. They all provide the same personal logging features – in the health app, you can record changes in your weight, height (relevant for children), medication intake, and more.
Such a diary can even save the user’s life if doctors look at allergies to medications or indications in the medical record. If you keep the app active enough – you can notice how a person’s body unfolds into graphs. That’s the beauty of this kind of lifelogging.