Seeing It from Other Eyes: How First‐Person Data Reshapes the Role of the Applied Ethnographer

This paper argues that first‐person data—video, audio, and other data that is recorded from the research participants' point of view through wearable technology—affords new possibilities for anthropology and the social sciences to capture and work with longitudinal, immersive, behavioral data at scale. We position first‐person data capture as an ethnographic method, complimentary and adjacent to others. Collecting detailed data on what people see, hear and experience through wearable technology opens a new way of understanding people, communities, and societies that has the potential to fundamentally change the social sciences as researchers gain access to nuanced, real‐time interactions and behaviors. We also show the value of ethnography in informing the development of wearable technology, as well as engineering and research to develop next‐generation technology across areas like computer vision and foundational AI. The paper draws on a series of projects the authors conducted for Meta Reality Labs Research during 2018–2024, which resulted in 1000+ hours of first‐person footage that were analyzed alongside participant observation, semi‐structured interviews, and diary studies.