ABSTRACT
This chapter sheds light on the specifics of digital self-tracking and its sociocultural implications in the context of digital media. It reassess the existing research literature as well as submitting to close reading the pertaining discourses, such as autobiographical statements of Quantified Selfers, newspaper and magazine articles (plus the online comments they received), promotional materials, advertisements and annual report statements, particularly by the private insurer Vitality that has been at the forefront of systematically including personal health and fitness data into its premiums system. The three pillars of digital self-tracking are: Automation; Gamification/visualisation; and Rendering data social. The critical literature on digital self-tracking has extended Foucault's theory of non-repressive, formative power relations with various theories capturing aspects of neoliberal government – Giddens's work on individualisation, Ulrich Beck's writings on risk, Baumann's notion of 'liquid modernity' are three of the literature's mainstays.
