Difference between revisions of "Quantified Self Movement"

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==Founding and Origins==
 
==Founding and Origins==
 
The Quantified Self was founded in 2007 by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, two editors of Wired magazine, who felt that the rise of self-tracking in their San Francisco environment deserved a website and a place where enthusiasts could meet, share their self-tracking experiences, and discuss their findings. Since then, the group has expanded internationally and currently includes over 60,000 members across the globe, organized in over 200 groups that hold regular meetings, as well as two international conferences a year<ref>(Quantified Self, 2015b)</ref>. The explicit motto of the Quantified Self movement, branded as a tagline on its official website, is “self-knowledge through numbers.”
 
The Quantified Self was founded in 2007 by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, two editors of Wired magazine, who felt that the rise of self-tracking in their San Francisco environment deserved a website and a place where enthusiasts could meet, share their self-tracking experiences, and discuss their findings. Since then, the group has expanded internationally and currently includes over 60,000 members across the globe, organized in over 200 groups that hold regular meetings, as well as two international conferences a year<ref>(Quantified Self, 2015b)</ref>. The explicit motto of the Quantified Self movement, branded as a tagline on its official website, is “self-knowledge through numbers.”
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==Self-Tracking Practices==
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Self-tracking practices include the use of personal data-gathering apps, wearable devices, and data analysis tools to record patterns from daily activities, as well as the organization, visualization, and analysis of this data. Many of the most popular self-tracking apps and devices focus on health and fitness and productivity and time management. While some self-trackers develop their own tools for data collection and analysis, the most popular self-tracking activities are conducted using popular apps and platforms such as Apple HealthKit, Fitibit, GoogleFit, and RunKeeper (health and fitness tracking), Clue (menstruation tracking), MoodPanda (mental health tracking), and RescueTime and Toggl (productivity tracking). Health and fitness self-tracking covers a broad range of categories, such as hours slept, calories expended, food and water consumed, and steps taken. Many apps also enable integration between different platforms, thus allowing self-trackers to analyze correlations between, for example, fitness levels, and work productivity.
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==References==
 
==References==

Revision as of 15:15, 12 March 2021

The Quantified Self (QS) refers to individuals that engage in keeping track of their daily activities systematically, in an attempt to better understand their bodies and their needs, ultimately seeking fulfillment. The data tracked can take many forms: it can be biological, physical, behavioral, or environmental information [1]. The QS movement relies on different self‐tracking tools, such as bracelets, smartwatches, sensors, fitness trackers or any other device that can measure biological attributes[2]. A branch of the Internet of Things, QS focuses on the data generated by human bodies [3]. The movement became more structured as mobile apps dedicated to keeping track of sleep, mood, health related issues, and smart watches like Fitbit became available and now has international communities of self-trackers that focus on data sharing.

Founding and Origins

The Quantified Self was founded in 2007 by Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly, two editors of Wired magazine, who felt that the rise of self-tracking in their San Francisco environment deserved a website and a place where enthusiasts could meet, share their self-tracking experiences, and discuss their findings. Since then, the group has expanded internationally and currently includes over 60,000 members across the globe, organized in over 200 groups that hold regular meetings, as well as two international conferences a year[4]. The explicit motto of the Quantified Self movement, branded as a tagline on its official website, is “self-knowledge through numbers.”

Self-Tracking Practices

Self-tracking practices include the use of personal data-gathering apps, wearable devices, and data analysis tools to record patterns from daily activities, as well as the organization, visualization, and analysis of this data. Many of the most popular self-tracking apps and devices focus on health and fitness and productivity and time management. While some self-trackers develop their own tools for data collection and analysis, the most popular self-tracking activities are conducted using popular apps and platforms such as Apple HealthKit, Fitibit, GoogleFit, and RunKeeper (health and fitness tracking), Clue (menstruation tracking), MoodPanda (mental health tracking), and RescueTime and Toggl (productivity tracking). Health and fitness self-tracking covers a broad range of categories, such as hours slept, calories expended, food and water consumed, and steps taken. Many apps also enable integration between different platforms, thus allowing self-trackers to analyze correlations between, for example, fitness levels, and work productivity.


References

  1. Swan, M. 2013. The Quantified Self: Fundamental Disruption in Big Data Science and Biological Discovery. Big Data, 1(2), pp.85-99.
  2. Chan, Estève, Fourniols, Escriba, & Campo, 2012; De Moya, Pallud, & Scornavacca, 2019
  3. (Couturier, Sola, Borioli, & Raiciu, 2012)
  4. (Quantified Self, 2015b)