There is no denying that we live in the age of data. Data is used to make big policy decisions, it is used by online advertisers to create targeted ads, and now, increasingly, your every day Joe is on a new mission—to track every aspect of his life. Tracking certain facts and figures is something that we humans have done for eons. A few things that come to mind are tracking expenses or perhaps tracking the places we've visited on a map.
But now that we are inundated with data, and we have the tools online to make sense of it all, many Internet users are turning to tracking programs to track every movement, no matter how personal.
An article published in the Big Think, entitled "Counting Down to the Era of the Quantified Self", briefly explains the development of what some experts are calling a nascent movement of self-tracking. Sites like Daytum, one of the most popular self-tracking services out there, enable users to aggregate personal data about virtually anything. Some popular categories of self-tracking data are hours of sleep per day, or calories consumed per day.
Daytum is perhaps the most important player in the new self-tracking industry, although the website is still in its infancy. Daytum is the brainchild of graphic designer Nicholas Felton. What first began as a curiosity turned into a hobby, and it then turned into salable artwork. Felton's story was featured last year in the New York Times, which described the "Feltron Annual Reports" the designer created, in which he artfully designed infographics to display different bits of personal data he collected over a year-long period. Some of his reports contain useful information for self-improvement--like the number of books he read per year as compared to the books he planned to read—while another report contained more whimsical information, like the number of streets he walked in New York City or the number of plants he killed.
What this personal information-gathering says about our 21st century, data-driven culture is still anybody's guess. However, one point that both the Big Think article made as well as another speculation in The Economist, is that this so-called "movement" of self-tracking could mean big business in the future. As noted in the Big Think article:
"However, wouldn’t almost any advertiser love to get their hands on your personal data? For example, consider what advertisers typically know about you – maybe your age, your gender and where you live. If you stop to fill out online surveys, they may know some basics about your household income and how often you purchase certain items. If you “like” these brands on Facebook, they may know even more about your preferences and interests, as well as information about your personal life (at least, in the aggregate). If you start connecting with them via fitness and medical devices equipped with sensors, they may even be able speculate about your moods, your emotions, and your psychological states."
Regardless of where the self-tracking movement leads, whether or not it is to big business or just a niche hobby, investors as well as consumers are beginning to notice.
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