Building from established work on wearable rhetorics and wellness culture (Brady, 2024; Derkatch, 2022; Elman, 2018; Gouge & Jones, 2016; J. Jones et al., 2017; Lawrence, 2023; Shew, 2020, 2022, 2023), this project examines marketing narratives surrounding the emergence of over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors (OTC CGMs) in the United States (Abbott, 2024; U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2024). I explore how audiences and kairotic moments impact health and wellness narratives around continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) by engaging with the following research questions: (1) How does the introduction of OTC CGMs shape Type 1 Diabetic (T1D) and non-Type 1 Diabetic (non-T1D) CGM narratives? (2) What are the affordances and implications of the narratives told to each audience group? (3) What can this case tell us about the current state of health and wellness culture in the United States? To conduct my study, I use a modified conventional content analysis framework (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) informed by Tracy’s (2020) iterative content analysis and inductive coding methods to identify emerging themes across six CGM websites made up of two audience groups. Overall, blood glucose is positioned as an emergent health indicator, and CGM narratives have shifted toward wellness as a primary factor for CGM adoption in both audience groups. I identify four discursive pillars of CGM narratives, including interface, agency, experience, and outcomes, which offer a lens to examine the narratives of wearable technologies. Ultimately, this case illustrates how narratives shape our understanding of technologies and communicate the current culture’s values and concerns surrounding health and wellness.
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