Self-tracking is regularly promoted as a way toward self-improvement. But life is not a mathematical problem waiting to be solved
Inspired by a curiosity to factcheck my own feelings, I’ve been tracking my mood: Far too often a bad day can feel like a permanent state rather than a passing experience. As it turns out, observing the little coloured emojis on my mood chart, one bad day does not, in fact, mean I am doomed to live a blue crying-face life forever. Thank goodness.
Others track themselves in different ways: monitoring daily step counts, tracking sleep cycles and bodily functions, counting calories, logging meals and so on. Digital technologies, wearable devices and an array of platforms make this easier than ever. Many people set reading targets and log books read on Goodreads or films watched on Letterboxd. Some track daily outfits online with the goal of perfecting personal style. Self-tracking is regularly promoted as a way toward self-improvement.
This kind of data-driven self-surveillance can be interesting, useful, and empowering even, for some. Wired writers who created a project called the Quantified Self suggest this comes from a desire to know oneself better. But it’s also kind of weird, right? To approach life as though it’s a mathematical problem to be solved with just a bit more data. It veers too closely to the ideology of a tech bro (yikes). Indeed, the former CEO of Google wrote in his book: “with enough data and the ability to crunch it, virtually any challenge facing humanity today can be solved.” Well, there’s more data around than ever before and challenges are still abound.
