From Networked to Quantified Self

The networked self is performed through interaction, connection, display, and management of visibility through privacy. Self-representation in this context is always a conversation between written, visual, and quantitative forms. This chapter suggests that new practices of gathering data, through personal informatics, active self-tracking or passive and ubiquitous monitoring, are changing how people understand the Self, their personal and social responsibility. Beyond legal frameworks, devices and interfaces often allow self-tracking by default—for example, the operating system on iPhones iOS/10 performs location tracking and ad tracking by default, whereas older versions (iOS/8) did not offer a feature for turning off distance tracking. Self-tracking practices are inexorably linked to a turbulent and fast-forming landscape demarcated by the digital health and biosensor industry. The quantified self is a dynamic identity that is produced by a community through interpretations of its own self-tracking activity, while its guiding premise remains to enable self-knowledge through self-tracking and large-scale data gathering.